# Quantitative proteomics of Zebrafish embryos and blastomeres

> **NIH NIH R01** · MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $328,015

## Abstract

Project Summary
Birth defects are the leading cause of infant death in the United States (Pediatrics 2012,
129:338-48. PMID: 22291121). Major human birth defects originate during early
embryogenesis. Zebrafish is an important vertebrate model system for understanding
early embryogenesis. Genome analysis shows that 71% of human genes have at least
one ortholog in zebrafish and 82% of the known genes responsible for human disease
are present in zebrafish (Nature 2013, 496: 498-503. PMID: 23594743). Research on
zebrafish embryos could shed invaluable light on human early embryogenesis, thus
leading to better understanding of human birth defects.
There is a rich literature on transcriptome-wide changes that accompany zebrafish early
embryogenesis. However, transcriptome-level information is limited because zygotic
transcription is silent before the mid-blastula transition (MBT), because post-
transcriptional regulation modulates gene expression, and because protein post-
translational modifications influence protein function. We hypothesize that high time-
and spatial-resolution studies of the early-stage zebrafish proteome will provide
new insights into early embryogenesis. In this proposal, we will develop new
techniques to improve the scale and sensitivity of bottom-up and top-down proteomics,
and those technologies will enable us to discover the proteome dynamics in wild-type
zebrafish early-stage embryos across twelve developmental stages with single-cell
resolution. Results from this proposal are extremely important. First, the top-down
proteomics technique should revolutionize the current workflow. The highly sensitive
proteomics technique will be an invaluable tool for analysis of mass-limited complex
proteome samples. Second, the proteome dynamics database will certainly provide new
insights into important events during early embryogenesis, e.g., MBT and early cellular
differentiation. Third, the proteome dynamics database will provide the zebrafish
community with a list of important gene targets for further gene mutation studies for
understanding how gene mutations lead to birth defects.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10070109
- **Project number:** 5R01GM125991-04
- **Recipient organization:** MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Liangliang Sun
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $328,015
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-01-01 → 2022-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10070109

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10070109, Quantitative proteomics of Zebrafish embryos and blastomeres (5R01GM125991-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10070109. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*