Proteome analysis of Methanosarcina acetivorans C2A
-- In collaboration with Prof. Ferry’s lab at Penn. State University
All of life is classified into three domains (Archaea, Bacteria and Eucarya), of which the Archaea is the least understood despite their importance to the biosphere. Methane-producing microbes, the largest known group representing in the Archaea, are essential to the global carbon cycle 1 . Methane and carbon dioxide are the final products of the microbial decomposition of organic matter in a diversity of oxygen-free (anaerobic) habitats, such as the rumen of cattle, sewage treatment plants, rice paddies, and natural wetlands. Most of this methane is produced by a two-step process in which complex organic matter is decomposed to acetate by fermentative microbes that is further converted to methane and carbon dioxide by methane-producing species from the genera Methanosarcina and Methanosaeta. M. acetivorans is ideally suited for characterization of the proteome of an acetate-utilizing methanogenic species as it has a tractable genetic exchange system, and the genome sequence is available 3. Furthermore, the genome of M. acetivorans at 5,751,492 base pairs is the largest yet reported for any of the Archaea, reflecting the expanse of metabolic diversity yet to be discovered. And also, the Archaea may represent one of the oldest extant life forms on earth, thus it provides opportunities for understanding the origin and evolution of life on this planet.
Proteomic analysis technology, based on multi-dimensional separation, MS detection and database searching and identification, can provide a very powerful tool to investigate the global expression of genes. We performed an initial study of the proteome of M. acetivorans grown with either acetate or methanol using 2-dimensional gel electrophoretic (2-DE) combined with MALDI TOF/TOF analysis in our lab.
(www. Genome.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gr.223902)
Publications:
1. Li, Q.; Li, L.; Rejtar, T.; Karger, B. L.; Ferry, J. G., The proteome of Methanosarcina acetivorans. Part I, an expanded view of the biology of the cell. J. Proteome Res. 2004, published online
2. Li, Q.; Li, L.; Rejtar, T.; Karger, B. L.; Ferry, J. G., The proteome of Methanosarcina acetivorans. Part II, comparison of protein abundance in acetate and methanol-grown cells J. Proteome Res. 2004, published online.
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