Putative mineral-specific proteins synthesized by a metal reducing bacterium

Abstract

Biological force microscopy (BFM) was combined with two-dimensional (2D) gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry to identify outer membrane proteins (OM) from Shewanella oneidensis that are involved in anaerobic Fe(III) reduction. This is the first time that biophysical force measurements have been coupled with protein expression patterns to search for evidence of putative mineral-specific proteins synthesized by bacteria. BFM shows that S. oneidensis possess an affinity towards goethite (FeOOH) but not diaspore (AlOOH) under anaerobic conditions, despite the fact that diaspore is isostructural with goethite and has essentially the same surface charge. The worm-like chain model was used to identify force-signatures in BFM-derived force curves indicative of putative outer membrane (OM) polypeptides synthesized by S. oneidensis to form a bond with goethite. Protein expression patterns from OM extract of cells grown under anaerobic Fe(III) reducing versus aerobic conditions show that approximately 400 protein spots exhibit significant differences in abundance on 2D gels. Peptide mass fingerprinting and tandem mass spectrometry were used to identify several of the protein spots that were significantly more abundant in 2D gels from OM extract of cells grown under anaerobic Fe(III) reducing conditions. Among those identified were proteins involved in Fe(III) and Mn(IV) reduction, protein transport andmore » secretion, polysaccharide biosynthesis and export, and hypothetical proteins with unknown functions. Together, the BFM and proteomic data suggest that OM proteins are synthesized by S. oneidensis under anaerobic conditions to function in iron oxide binding and/or Fe(III) reduction. If this is the case, then it is possible that the evolution of dissimilatory iron-reducing bacteria like Shewanella, could have been, at least in part, driven by the binding/reduction ability of certain proteins to specific mineral phases.« less