PNNL

Abstract

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the most significant opportunistic bacterial pathogens in humans causing infections and premature death in patients with cystic fibrosis, AIDS, severe burns, organ transplants or cancer. Liquid chromatography coupled online with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was used for the large-scale proteomic analysis of the P. aeruginosa membrane subproteome. Concomitantly, an affinity labeling technique, using iodoacetyl-PEO biotin to tag cysteinyl-containing proteins, permitted the enrichment and detection of lower abundance membrane proteins. The application of these approaches resulted in the identification of 786 proteins. A total of 333 proteins (42%) had a minimum of one transmembrane domain (TMD; ranging from 1 to 14) and 195 proteins were classified as hydrophobic based on their positive GRAVY values (ranging from 0.01 to 1.32). Key integral inner and outer membrane proteins involved in adaptation and antibiotic resistance were conclusively identified, including the detection of 53% of all predicted opr-type porins (outer integral membrane proteins) and all the components of the mexA-mexB-oprM transmembrane protein complex. This work represents the most comprehensive qualitative proteomic analysis of the membrane subproteome of P. aeruginosa and for prokaryotes in general to date.