Detailed investigation of the neural crest cell proteome has lingered behind that of the transcriptome due to the challenge of obtaining sufficient starting material for subsequent proteomic investigation. Compounded by the complexity of protein abundance, large number of posttranslational modifications, and the stochastic nature of proteomics approaches, little data so far exists describing the true neural crest cell proteome. However, recent advances in instrument sensitivity and recovery of material during sample preparation have alleviated many of these problems and make proteomics analysis an underutilized tool to study neural crest cell biology. Here we present a quantitative proteomics protocol for deep analysis of both whole proteome and posttranslational modifications and a separate protocol for ultrasensitive proteomic profiling from submicrogram amounts of protein.
Keywords: Neural crest; Proteome; Proteomics; SILAC.