N-terminal acetylation in Mycobacterium tuberculosis is correlated with pathogenic activity. We used genomics and bottom-up proteomics to identify protein Emp1 as the sole acetyltransferase responsible for acetylation of EsxA, a known virulence factor. Using custom data analysis, we screened the proteome to identify 22 additional putative substrates of Emp1.
Keywords: N terminal acetylation; acetylation; mycobacteria; proteomics; timsTOF; virulence determinants; virulence factors.