Estimation of chloroplast macromolecular complex copy numbers and subunit stoichiometries during the Chlamydomonas reinhardtii cell cycle

An unbiased, quantitative view of biomolecules in a living cell is a prerequisite for accurate modeling approaches and informs our understanding of cellular metabolism at scale. In this work, we used the total protein approach (TPA), in which the total protein mass of a given proteomics sample is used as a calibrator for absolute protein quantification, to determine protein abundances during the Chlamydomonas reinhardtii diurnal cycle. We use external, independently measured quantitative markers (metals, pigments) to assess the absolute protein abundances in unlabeled whole cell extracts. We calculate protein abundances in fg / cell of 7322 Chlamydomonas proteins, 2266 of which were captured in every time point, including the major proteins involved in the light reactions, photoprotection, proteostasis and fatty acid metabolism during a cell cycle. As expected, Rubisco large and small subunits are present in a 1:1 stoichiometry, with the large subunit being the most abundant protein in our data set, averaging 5.05 × 10 ⁶ molecules per cell, reflecting 2.7% of the total protein mass. We noticed that PSII is the most abundant complex involved in the light reactions with 2.08 × 10 ⁶ complexes per cell. PSI averages 1.75 × 10 ⁶ complexes per cell and cytochrome b ₆ f averages 0.77 × 10 ⁶ complexes per cell. The TPA is a robust tool to study proteome dynamics quantitatively, while avoiding artefacts due to biochemical fractionation. Our proteome data set with an unprecedented temporal resolution is a valuable resource to assess protein abundances during the cell cycle in the reference alga Chlamydomonas.