Abstract
The myriad of posttranslational modifications (PTMs) of proteins that occur in all living cells are crucial to all kinds of biological processes. Brucella is an intracellular parasitic bacterium that can cause chronic diseases in both humans and livestock. To reveal the relationship between PTMs and the virulence and survival of Brucella, we described the first comprehensive multiple PTM-omics atlas of B. abortus 2308. Five PTMs involving lysine, namely 2-hydroxyisobutyrylation, succinylation, crotonylation, acetylation, and malonylation were identified. Nearly 2,000 modified proteins were observed, and these proteins took part in many biological processes, with a variety of molecular functions. In addition, we detected many significant virulence factors of Brucella among the modified proteins. 10 of the 15 T4SS effector proteins were detected with one or more PTMs. Moreover, abundant PTMs were detected in other typical virulence factors. Considering the role of PTMs in various biological processes of Brucella virulence and survival, we propose that the virulence of Brucella is associated with the PTMs of proteins. Taken together, this study provides the first global survey of PTMs in Brucella. This is a prospective starting point for further functional analysis of PTMs during the survival of Brucella in hosts, interpretation of the function of Brucella proteins, and elucidation of the pathogenic mechanism of Brucella.
Highlights
Brucellosis is known to seriously endanger the livestock industry, it is one of the most neglected prevalent zoonotic diseases
The circos plot shows the abundance configurations of the proteome and five lysine posttranslational modifications (PTMs)-omics for proteins isolated from B. abortus 2308
Across the five lysine PTM-omics, we identified 1,904 modified proteins in the B. abortus proteome
Summary
Brucellosis is known to seriously endanger the livestock industry, it is one of the most neglected prevalent zoonotic diseases. This disease is caused by Brucella species comprising intracellular Gram-negative bacteria that can survive and develop in different host cells. In November 2019, four students of the Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences were serologically positive for brucellosis. This incident was caused by the improper disposal of the A19 vaccine. Due to the airborne transmission characteristics of brucellosis, Brucella is considered a biological weapon (Pappas et al, 2006), (Minor, 2015)
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