In Silico Analysis of Bioactive Peptides Released from Giant Grouper (Epinephelus lanceolatus) Roe Proteins Identified by Proteomics Approach

Major proteins contained in dried giant grouper roe (GR) such as vitellogenin (from Epinephelus coioides; NCBI accession number: AAW29031.1), apolipoprotein A-1 precursor (from Epinephelus coioides; NCBI accession number: ACI01807.1) and apolipoprotein E (from Epinephelus bruneus; NCBI accession number: AEB31283.1) were characterized through compiled proteomics techniques (SDS-PAGE, in-gel digestion, mass spectrometry and on-line Mascot database analysis). These proteins were subjected to in silico analysis using BLAST and BIOPEP-UWM database. Sequence similarity search by BLAST revealed that the aligned vitellogenin sequences from Epinephelus coioides and Epinephelus lanceolatus share 70% identity, which indicates that the sequence sample has significant similarity with proteins in sequence databases. Moreover, prediction of potential bioactivities through BIOPEP-UWM database resulted in high numbers of peptides predominantly with dipeptidyl peptidase-IV (DPP-IV) and angiotensin-I-converting enzyme (ACE-I) inhibitory activities. Pepsin (pH > 2) was predicted to be the most promising enzyme for the production of bioactive peptides from GR protein, which theoretically released 82 DPP-IV inhibitory peptides and 47 ACE-I inhibitory peptides. Overall, this work highlighted the potentiality of giant grouper roe as raw material for the generation of pharmaceutical products. Furthermore, the application of proteomics and in silico techniques provided rapid identification of proteins and useful prediction of its potential bioactivities.