Plant & Animal Genomes XIV Conference

January 14-18, 2006
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA

Transcriptome And Proteome Profile For The Swine Parotid Gland

Chris Verschoor¹ , Sandra Walters² , Cecil W. Forsberg² , John P. Phillips² , Serguei P. Golovan¹

¹  University of Guelph, Department of Animal and Poultry Science, Guelph, Ontario, N1G2W1, Canada

²  University of Guelph, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Guelph, Ontario, N1G2W1, Canada

A molecular index of the porcine endogenous transcriptome and proteome of the parotid gland would be beneficial to several areas of research associated with the biological function and physiological importance of the salivary gland system. This type of “catalogue” would further our understanding of the role saliva plays in reducing disease susceptibility, promoting overall oral health and feed digestion. In addition, a molecular index would aid areas of research where swine are increasingly being used as animal models for salivary diseases such as Sjögren's syndrome and radiation-induced salivary gland injury, and gene transfer to salivary glands for the delivery of therapeutic proteins.
In this study, transcriptome and proteome profiling was performed using Affymetrix GeneChip® Porcine Genome Arrays (23,256 unique porcine transcripts) and iTRAQ (isotope tagging for relative and absolute quantification) analysis, respectively. Affymetrix analysis identified 11,888 transcripts (49.7%) that were expressed in parotid glands (three standard deviations above background). iTRAQ analysis identified 463 parotid proteins at a confidence interval of 95%. It was found that at least 50% of porcine proteins identified by iTRAQ profiling belong to the most abundant transcripts (top 10%) identified by Affymetrix analysis. These techniques will also be used to assess the impact of transgene expression on the transcriptome and proteome of the genetically modified Enviropig(TM).