Emodin has a strong antibacterial activity, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). However, the mechanism by which emodin induces growth inhibition against MRSA remains unclear. In this study, the isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) proteomics approach was used to investigate the modes of action of emodin on a MRSA isolate and methicillin-sensitive S. aureus ATCC29213(MSSA). Proteomic analysis showed that expression levels of 145 and 122 proteins were changed significantly in MRSA and MSSA, respectively, after emodin treatment. Comparative analysis of the functions of differentially expressed proteins between the two strains was performed via bioinformatics tools blast2go and STRING database. Proteins related to pyruvate pathway imbalance induction, protein synthesis inhibition, and DNA synthesis suppression were found in both methicillin-sensitive and resistant strains. Moreover, Interference proteins related to membrane damage mechanism were also observed in MRSA. Our findings indicate that emodin is a potential antibacterial agent targeting MRSA via multiple mechanisms. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.