2-DE analysis indicates that <it>Acinetobacter baumannii </it>displays a robust and versatile metabolism

• Main Authors: Barba Maria J, Gayoso Carmen, Parreira José R, Cabral Maria P, Soares Nelson C, Bou Germán
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2009-09-01
• Series: Proteome Science
• Online Access: http://www.proteomesci.com/content/7/1/37

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Acinetobacter baumannii </it>is a nosocomial pathogen that has been associated with outbreak infections in hospitals. Despite increasing awareness about this bacterium, its proteome remains poorly characterised, however recently the complete genome of <it>A. baumannii </it>reference strain ATCC 17978 has been sequenced. Here, we have used 2-DE and MALDI-TOF/TOF approach to characterise the proteome of this strain.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The membrane and cytoplasmatic protein extracts were analysed separately, these analyses revealed the reproducible presence of 239 and 511 membrane and cytoplamatic protein spots, respectively. MALDI-TOF/TOF characterisation identified a total of 192 protein spots (37 membrane and 155 cytoplasmatic) and revealed that the identified membrane proteins were mainly transport-related proteins, whereas the cytoplasmatic proteins were of diverse nature, although mainly related to metabolic processes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This work indicates that <it>A. baumannii </it>has a versatile and robust metabolism and also reveal a number of proteins that may play a key role in the mechanism of drug resistance and virulence. The data obtained complements earlier reports of <it>A. baumannii </it>proteome and provides new tools to increase our knowledge on the protein expression profile of this pathogen.</p>