Assessing the precision of high-throughput computational approaches for the genome-wide subcellular localization of putative proteins from Vibrio cholerae

Abstract

Abstract Vibrio cholerae have evolved mechanism to become pathogenic to humans with a potential to cause the severe life-threatening diarrhea disease, cholera. Cholera can emerge as explosive outbreaks in the human population. V. cholerae illness is produced primarily through the expression of a potent toxin within the human intestine. Several proteins are involved in the pathogenesis and regulation of bacterial cell activity. The insilico prediction of protein subcellular localization was used to distinguish the actual location in the cells. Total 52 V. cholerae proteins were analyzed with the help of PSLPred. The subcellular localization of these proteins was five in the cells like cytoplasm, periplasm, inner membrane, outer membrane and extracellular space. They have widespread applications in function of proteins in the host cell and in designing the drugs. Introduction Worldwide 1.3 billion cases of acute diarrhea occur in children below 5 years annually of which more than 3 million die and 80 per cent of these deaths are in children below 2 years of age (Sur and Bhattacharya 2003). Acute diarrhea was caused by various numbers of bacterial, viral or parasitic agents. The most important bacterial agents causing outbreaks of acute diarrhoea are V. cholerae O1 and O139. Diarrheal disease outbreaks were causes of major public health emergencies in India. West Bengal located in the Gangetic delta has been hailed as the “homeland of cholera”, with frequent localized outbreaks being reported (Fule et al 1990). Vibrio cholerae O1 and V. cholerae O139 are etiological agents of epidemic cholera. However, V. cholerae O1 strains that do not produce cholera toxin, i.e., that are nontoxigenic (NT), and non-O1/non-O139 strains have also been associated with cholera, gastroenteritis, septicemia or other intestinal infections (Morris et al 1984; Mukhopadhyay et al 1995). Outbreaks of cholera were reported in Brazil during the third (1853 to 1854), fourth (1866 to 1868), and fifth (1893 to 1895) pandemics (Barua, 1992). The computational prediction of the subcellular localization of bacterial proteins is an important step in genome annotation and in the search for novel vaccine or drug targets.