Table 1.

Range of values for the number of proteins per cell based on published studies

Reported proteins per cell	Cell volume (μm3)	Inferred proteins per volume (106/μm3)	Mismatch from calculation	BNID, Ref, Method
M. pneumonia
0.05 × 106	0.015	3	<2-fold	Kühner et al. 6. Using cryoEM counting of ribosomes for normalization. Volume calculated based on pear shaped 700 nm × 300 nm.
L. interrogans
a(1.0–1.2)×106	0.22	5	<2-fold	Schmidt et al. 7. Summing table SV. Volume given in Maier et al. 36 citing Beck et al. 37.
E. coli
2.36 × 106	0.86	2.7	<2-fold	100088, Neidhardt & Umbarger, EcoSal Ch. 3, 1996, 40 min doubling time, 0.95 pg cell total weight and assuming cell density of 1.1 (used for normalization by Lu 30). Original calculation based on average protein MW = 40 kDa but weighing by abundance gives MW ≈ 30 kDa that will make value higher by a third.
2.3 × 106	0.7	3.3	<2-fold	Arike et al. 18. Volume not specified
a0.1 × 106		N/A	N/A	Taniguchi et al. 32, cover about 1/4 of genome. Growth at 30°C (based on fluorescent protein).
a280 × 106		N/A	N/A	Ishihama et al. 8, they report a massive overestimate in ribosomal protein counts
B. subtilis
a2.3 × 106	1.13	2.0	<2-fold	Maass et al. 33, exponential growth, early stationary, and late stationary, respectively. Only cytosolic proteins with isoelectric point at pH 4–7 quantified.
a1.3 × 106	0.62	2.1	<2-fold
a1.8 × 106	0.85	2.1	<2-fold
S. aureus
a0.35 × 106	0.33	1.1	≈3-fold	Maass et al. 33, exponential growth, early stationary, and late stationary, respectively. Only cytosolic proteins with isoelectric point at pH 4–7 quantified.
a0.27 × 106	0.23	1.2	≈3-fold
a0.26 × 106	0.23	1.1	≈3-fold
S. cerevisiae (haploid)
50 × 106	≈30–40	1–2	≈2-fold	106198, Futcher et al. 34, based on 1977 paper measuring 4 fg of protein per cell (used for normalization by Lu 30)
a47 × 106				Ghaemmaghami et al. 31, summing up all measured proteins (based on TAP tag).
53 × 106 (30 × 106–80 × 106)				104313, von der Haar 35, the author merged various high throughput measurements.
S. pombe
60.3 × 106	≈100	0.6	≈5-fold	Marguerat et al. 9. Mass Spectrometry, exponential growth.
M. musculus (NIH3T3 cells)
a3 × 109	≈2,000	1.5	<2-fold	Schwanhäusser et al. 10 updated in Nature 2013. SILAC medium. Volume based on BNID 108979.
H. sapiens (U2OS)
a(0.95–1.7) × 109	≈4,000	0.2–0.4	≈10-fold	Beck et al. 11. Range stems from the 11 most highly abundant proteins for which the authors could not calibrate accurately and originally reported as >20 million copies per cell. Assuming 20 million gives the lower value and using the original measured higher values gives the upper bound.
H. sapiens (HeLa)
a2.0 × 109	≈2,000	1	≈3-fold	Nagaraj et al. 12.
a2.3 × 109	≈2,000	1	≈3-fold	Finka and Goloubinoff 19. Analyzing data from Geiger et al. 13.

In some cases the number is inferred from supplementary information and was not reported as such. When cell volume was not reported in the study, literature values under similar conditions were used. Mismatch between values inferred from the literature per unit volume and estimates given in this paper (2–4 million proteins per micron cubed) is calculated.

^aValue for total proteins per cell was not explicitly reported and is based on summing the abundance values as reported in the supplementary material across the proteome.