The predicted subcellular localisation of the sugarcane proteome

Abstract. Plant cells are highly organised, and many biological processes are associated with specialised subcellular structures. Subcellular localisation is a key feature of proteins, since it is related to biological function. The subcellular localisation of such proteins can be predicted, providing information that is particularly relevant to those proteins with unknown or putative function. We performed the first in silico genome-wide subcellular localisation analysis for the sugarcane transcriptome (with 11 882 predicted proteins) and found that most of the proteins were localised in four compartments: nucleus (44%), cytosol (19%), mitochondria (12%) and secretory destinations (11%). We also showed that ~19 % of the proteins were localised in multiple compartments. Other results allowed identification of a potential set of sugarcaneproteins that could showdual targetingby theuseofN-truncated forms that started fromthenearest downstream in-frame AUG codons. This study was a first step in increasing knowledge about the subcellular localisation of the sugarcane proteome