In today's edition of "studies I've never considered -- but I'm super glad someone else did..." we'll talk about the gravome -- or the proteins that will change under high gravity conditions!
It is the topic of this brand new JPR paper.
Okay...so...if somebody asked me how to do this study I honestly think I'd eventually come up with the model this group used, because it is simple and elegant. I'll admit, however, that it is just a little hilarious.
So...you get some drosophila and you break them into 2 groups. One gets earth's gravity and the second group gets centrifuged!!! For 9 days! They work it out so the fruit flies get about 3 times earth's gravity.
Guess what? The insects even look different after 9 days at 3G!
They harvest out the proteins from the 2 groups. Interestingly, they separate the heads from the bodies and extract the protein separately. They TMT 6plex tag the samples, SCX pre-fractionate and do normal stuff with an LTQ-Orbitrap Velos for ID and quan.
And BOOM! They get the Gravome of drosophila! It is almost 2,000 proteins that are differentially expressed between the low and high gravity. Which....I find kind of amazing. I get really psyched when new nearby explanets are revealed. The most promising one is like 40% larger than Earth? That is a lot of extra gravity, right? Seems like the fruit flies will be okay, but it requires a significant change in their systems....
This is how I imagine the flies after being brought back to normal gravity!
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