TMT-based proteomic analysis of the fish-borne spoiler Pseudomonas psychrophila subjected to chitosan oligosaccharides in fish juice system.

P. psychrophila is implicated in fish spoilage especially under cold storage. In the present study, tandem mass tag (TMT) quantitative proteomic analysis was performed to clarify the molecular mechanism for the inhibitory effect of chitosan oligosaccharides (COS) against P. psychrophila in fish juice system. The MIC and MBC of the COS against P. psychrophila were 6 and 8 mg/mL, respectively. Compared with the untreated control, a total of 370 proteins (163 up-regulated and 207 down-regulated) were identified as differentially expressed proteins (DEPs, >1.5-fold or < 0.67-fold, P < 0.05) in P. psychrophila when exposed to 6 mg/mL COS. Bioinformatics analysis indicated that the DEPs were mainly involved in the cell wall/membrane, cell motility, and electron-transport chain; DNA replication, RNA transcription and translation, posttranslational modifications of proteins; TCA cycle, and the transport and metabolism of amino acid, carbohydrate, and ion. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) and fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis further validated that cell structure especially the cell wall/membrane was damaged after COS treatment. The results in this study presented an important step toward understanding the response of P. psychrophila cells to COS at the proteome level.