Top-down proteomic identification of plasmid and host proteins produced by pathogenic Escherichia coli using MALDI-TOF-TOF tandem mass spectrometry

PLoS One. 2021 Nov 29;16(11):e0260650. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0260650. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Fourteen proteins produced by three pathogenic Escherichia coli strains were identified using antibiotic induction, MALDI-TOF-TOF tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) and top-down proteomic analysis using software developed in-house. Host proteins as well as plasmid proteins were identified. Mature, intact protein ions were fragmented by post-source decay (PSD), and prominent fragment ions resulted from the aspartic acid effect fragmentation mechanism wherein polypeptide backbone cleavage (PBC) occurs on the C-terminal side of aspartic acid (D), glutamic acid (E) and asparagine (N) residues. These highly specific MS/MS-PSD fragment ions were compared to b- and y-type fragment ions on the C-terminal side of D-, E- and N-residues of in silico protein sequences derived from whole genome sequencing. Nine proteins were found to be post-translationally modified with either removal of an N-terminal methionine or a signal peptide. The protein sequence truncation algorithm of our software correctly identified all full and truncated protein sequences. Truncated sequences were compared to those predicted by SignalP. Nearly complete concurrence was obtained except for one protein where SignalP mis-identified the cleavage site by one residue. Two proteins had intramolecular disulfide bonds that were inferred by the absence of PBC on the C-terminal side of a D-residue located within the disulfide loop. These results demonstrate the utility of MALDI-TOF-TOF for identification of full and truncated bacterial proteins.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Escherichia coli / chemistry*
  • Escherichia coli Infections / microbiology*
  • Escherichia coli Proteins / analysis*
  • Humans
  • Plasmids / chemistry*
  • Proteomics / methods
  • Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization / methods

Substances

  • Escherichia coli Proteins

Grants and funding

This work was supported by ARS, USDA CRIS Project Number: 2030-42000-055-00-D. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.