Proteomics in the study of the molecular taxonomy and epidemiology of bacterial pathogens

Abstract

The ability to discriminate bacterial isolates is important for a number of areas of research in Medical Microbiology, particularly in defining bacterial taxonomy and monitoring transmission in epidemiological investigations. Molecular techniques capable of typing bacteria at the level of the genome and proteome are now widely used for these investigations. This review considers two electrophoretic methods for typing bacteria on the basis of their proteomes, namely 1-D SDS-PAGE and 2-DE. The application of these two techniques for bacterial typing is described with reference to two publications that appeared in Electrophoresis [Costa, Electrophoresis 1990, 11, 382-391 and Cash et al., Electrophoresis 1997, 18, 1472-1482]. Even though these methods have been used for nearly 20 years to differentiate bacterial isolates they remain key technologies in proteome-based typing methods. The developments that have arisen from the two key papers are described in order to highlight the advantages and disadvantages in typing bacteria at the level of their proteomes. Some of the difficulties associated with electrophoretic typing methods can be overcome by using non-gel proteomic methods based on MS to provide improved sensitivity and specificity. The application of proteomic methods to investigate bacterial taxonomy, epidemiology and pathogenesis in general has significant potential in furthering our understanding of infectious diseases.

Label‐free identification of bacterial microcolonies via elastic scattering

“…Since contaminations could happen from harvest to distributions, it is critical to provide accurate and rapid identification and classification of pathogens to monitor and react to any possible outbreak situations. A number of conventional methodologies used in bacterial identification include morphological observations (Stecchini et al, 2000;Tetz et al, 1993), serological tests (Gehring et al, 2006), proteomics (Cash, 2009;Cash and Hecker, 2003), and genomics (Jaradat et al, 2002). Among these, morphological methods sought phenotypic characteristics of a bacterial species to differentiate from other species.…”

Application of Two-Dimensional Gel Electrophoresis to Microbial Systems

“…Molecular techniques capable of typing bacteria on the basis of their proteomes are used for pathogenesis and epidemiological investigations (Cash, 2009). In 1990, Costas presented a new approach to bacterial typing by 1-D SDS PAGE.…”

“…This technique provides a high resolution large-scale screening for differentiation of bacterial isolates. Despite the advantages of 2-DE for taxonomic and epidemiological studies, 1-D SDS PAGE is mostly preferred because it is a simple and straightforward method (Cash, 2009). …”

“…1). In fact the bacterium, E. coli, has served as a model system for the development of 2-DE (O'Farrell, 1975;Cash, 2009). (VanBogelen et al, 1999).…”

“…In addition, 2-DE was extensively employed to differentiate and classify the microbial isolates. Discrimination of bacterial isolates is important in the study of the molecular taxonomy and epidemiology of bacterial pathogens (Cash, 2009). 1-D SDS PAGE and 2-DE were used as successful rapid typing methods generating reliable and reproducible data.…”