The egg white and yolk interactomes as gleaned from extensive proteomic data

Combinatorial peptide ligand libraries have recently allowed considerable advances in the mapping of chicken egg yolk and white proteomics. Data from literature have been regrouped and elaborated for network and pathway analyses in order to convey a unified view of these proteomes. Redundant proteins were excluded, while isoforms of the same proteins were maintained to reach a total of 260 distinct gene products for egg yolk and 148 for egg white having a match in the database. From these analyses, a role for proteins involved in cell development, proliferation and migration, cell-to-cell interaction and hematological system development emerged. Although it might turn out that, notwithstanding the extensive mapping, the currently available datasets might be still incomplete, a valuable insight could still be obtained about specific proteins playing a crucial role in antimicrobial responses, mainly histones, lysozyme and vitamin-binding proteins. In particular, SERPINB3 (ovalbumin Y, or Squamous Cell Carcinoma Antigen, SCCA1) was individuated in 8 out of 10 top score pathways in egg yolk and in 6 out 10 in egg white. SERPINB3 is a member of the ov-serpin family, participating in coagulation and inflammation responses. However, it is yet to be assessed how these observations could correlate with previous analyses about the role of egg yolk derived proteins in counteracting blood coagulation.