AUTHOR=Lombard-Banek Camille , Moody Sally A. , Nemes Peter TITLE=High-Sensitivity Mass Spectrometry for Probing Gene Translation in Single Embryonic Cells in the Early Frog (Xenopus) Embryo JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology VOLUME=4 YEAR=2016 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cell-and-developmental-biology/articles/10.3389/fcell.2016.00100 DOI=10.3389/fcell.2016.00100 ISSN=2296-634X ABSTRACT=

Direct measurement of protein expression with single-cell resolution promises to deepen the understanding of the basic molecular processes during normal and impaired development. High-resolution mass spectrometry provides detailed coverage of the proteomic composition of large numbers of cells. Here we discuss recent mass spectrometry developments based on single-cell capillary electrophoresis that extend discovery proteomics to sufficient sensitivity to enable the measurement of proteins in single cells. The single-cell mass spectrometry system is used to detect a large number of proteins in single embryonic cells in the 16-cell embryo of the South African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) that give rise to distinct tissue types. Single-cell measurements of protein expression provide complementary information on gene transcription during early development of the vertebrate embryo, raising a potential to understand how differential gene expression coordinates normal cell heterogeneity during development.