Abstract: This research adopted the isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) method for qualitative analysis of the whole proteins of Spirulina and employed a reasonable overall categorization method to categorize them according to practicability. The results demonstrated that a total of 2 085 Spirulina proteins were qualitatively identified including 1 562 known proteins. Totally, 869 annotated proteins could be classified into 233 protein superfamilies and 87 protein (all members are known proteins) families by sequence categorization. Based on their nature, structures and functions, these annotated proteins could be classified into 7 categories. It was found that the protein superfamilies had vital functions such as antioxidant, anticancer, antitumor and immunoregulation, and could be widely used in food, medicinal, chemical industry and other fields. Thus, active proteins of Spirulina have has promising prospects.

Key words: Spirulina, whole proteins, family classification, isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ), functional analysis