Nuclear Proteome Map of Mouse Heart Chambers

Heart specialization involves nuclear programs; however, chamber-specific regulation of the nuclear proteome landscape remains unknown. In this study, we isolated the nucleus from four major anatomical regions of healthy mouse heart (fresh) and employed quantitative mass spectrometry-based proteomics to construct a comprehensive nuclear proteome landscape of left ventricle (LV, 2403 proteins), right ventricle (RV, 2242 proteins), left atrium (LA, 2368 proteins), and right atrium (RA, 1816 proteins). This led to the discovery of nuclear regional proteome signatures (ventricular signature, 297 proteins; atrial signature, 183 proteins) associated with oxidative metabolism and redox regulation, ferroptosis, extracellular-matrix remodeling, SUMO- and stress-responsive control and transcriptional regulation. Chamber-level analyses further identify distinct nuclear features in LV (120 proteins), LA (188 proteins), and RA (72 proteins). In addition, we defined conserved core nuclear proteome (230 proteins) shared across all anatomical regions, enriched for transcription-regulator complexes, nucleolar/ribosome-associated, RNA-processing, and chromatin-organization components. Within this core network, we report 78 transcription factors/co-factors and select nuclear, chromatin and RNA export-associated proteins, including 29 specific factors (e.g., Alpk3, Rbm14, Arglu1, Hmgb1, Myef2, Sf1) associated with the heart. Regionally, we verified spatial localization in heart of H2ac21 and Sun2 in LA and Ptbp2 in LV by immunofluorescence. This study provides insights into the chamber-resolved view of the nuclear proteome in the heart, establishes a framework for linking nuclear proteomic signatures to atrial and ventricular biology, unique features of the heart nuclear proteome landscape relative to other organs, and a baseline for studying nuclear remodeling in cardiac pathophysiology.