Identification of enzymes and regulatory proteins in Escherichia coli that are oxidized under nitrogen, carbon, or phosphate starvation

Abstract

Using proteomic technologies, we identified 62 proteins that are oxidized to carbonyl derivatives during growth of Escherichia coli under nitrogen starvation (NS), carbon starvation (CS), and phosphate starvation (PS) conditions. The carbonylated proteins were converted to 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazone derivatives and these were identified using Western blotting and mass spectrometry by searching E. coli proteins in the Swiss-Prot and/or NCBI databases. Fourteen of the oxidized proteins were formed under both NS and CS conditions, and only three proteins were specifically oxidized under PS conditions. Interestingly, the carbonyl content of proteins in crude extracts of cells harvested after 48 h of stationary growth under NS and CS was significantly lower than that observed at mid-log and end-log phases of growth. In contrast, the carbonyl content of proteins in extracts of cells grown under PS conditions was fairly constant during comparable periods of growth.