Originally published in Science Express on 5 May 2005
Science, Vol 308, Issue 5730, 1915-1920, 24 June 2005
[DOI: 10.1126/science. 1109070] Reports
Community Proteomics of a Natural Microbial Biofilm
Rachna J. Ram,1 Nathan C. VerBerkmoes,3,4 Michael P. Thelen,1,6 Gene W. Tyson,1 Brett J. Baker,2 Robert C. Blake, II,7 Manesh Shah,5 Robert L. Hettich,4 Jillian F. Banfield1,2* Using genomic and mass spectrometry–based proteomic methods,
we evaluated gene expression, identified key activities, and
examined partitioning of metabolic functions in a natural acid
mine drainage (AMD) microbial biofilm community. We detected
2033 proteins from the five most abundant species in the biofilm,
including 48% of the predicted proteins from the dominant biofilm
organism,
Leptospirillum group II. Proteins involved in protein
refolding and response to oxidative stress appeared to be highly
expressed, which suggests that damage to biomolecules is a key
challenge for survival. We validated and estimated the relative
abundance and cellular localization of 357 unique and 215 conserved
novel proteins and determined that one abundant novel protein
is a cytochrome central to iron oxidation and AMD formation.
1 Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
2 Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
3 Graduate School of Genome Science and Technology University of Tennessee–Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 1060 Commerce Park, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USA.
4 Chemical Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA.
5 Life Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA.
6 Biosciences Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94551, USA.
7 College of Pharmacy, Xavier University, New Orleans, LA, 70125, USA.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jill@seismo.berkeley.edu
Enough funding, we can do environmental genomics & proteomics! See what they have done on this field!!