Applicability of 2-DE to assess differences in the protein profile between cold storage and not cold storage in nectarine fruits.

Cold storage is being used to increase nectarine fruits' postharvest life. However, low temperatures lead to chilling injury and limit their commercial quality and value. In this study a proteomic approach was used to compare the protein profile between control and cold storage nectarine fruits. Protein extracted from tissue was resolved by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) in the 4-7 pH and 10-200 kDa Mr range. Around 350 spots were well determined, and 11 from 17 spots that showed significant differences were identified by peptide mass fingerprinting (PMF) using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI)-time-of-flight (TOF)-mass spectrometry (MS). Four differentially expressed proteins were characterized as allergens and were further assessed at the transcription level using quantitative real time-RT-PCR (qRT-PCR).