Abstract
The increasing awareness of the occurrence and role of proteins in scent secretions has created a requirement for analytical approaches that can define the protein complexity of a scent secretion and identify and quantify those proteins. In this brief review, we summarise current approaches to the characterisation of proteins in scent secretion. By applying analytical methodologies of progressively increasing complexity, it is possible for behavioural labs to complete analytical surveys of scent complexity and protein component prior to the move to more specialised methods based on protein and peptide mass spectrometry. Whilst protein mass spectrometry is most easily delivered when the cognate gene or mRNA sequence is known, it is possible to recover most or all of the protein sequence by mass spectrometry, improving the chances of a cross-species identification. Finally, once the identity of the protein(s) is known, new analytical approaches permit high-quality quantification of the proteins, an essential pre-requisite to assessment of the regulation of the protein in scent secretions.
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Acknowledgements
This work has been supported by grants from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC, BB/J002631/1, BB/26/S13738) and Natural Environment Research Council (NE/G018650/1). Jenny Unsworth is grateful to BBSRC for provision of a studentship.
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Beynon, R.J. et al. (2013). The Application of Proteomics to the Discovery and Quantification of Proteins in Scent Signals. In: East, M., Dehnhard, M. (eds) Chemical Signals in Vertebrates 12. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5927-9_34
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