Towards the proteome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Human tuberculosis is caused by the intracellular pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Sequencing of the genome of M. tuberculosis strain H37Rv has predicted 3924 open reading frames, and enabled identification of proteins from this bacterium by peptide mass fingerprinting. Extracellular proteins from the culture medium and proteins in cellular extracts were examined by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis using immobilized pH gradient technology. By mass spectrometry and immunodetection, 49 culture filtrate proteins and 118 lysate proteins were identified, 83 of which were novel. To date, 288 proteins have been identified in M. tuberculosis proteome studies, and a list is presented which includes all identified proteins (available at http://www.ssi.dk/publichealth/tbimmun). The information obtained from the M. tuberculosis proteome so far is discussed in relation to the information obtained from the complete genome sequence.