Pseudomonas aeruginosa and a proteomic approach to bacterial pathogenesis

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a Gram-negative bacterium that is ubiquitous in the environment and can cause a variety of diseases in compromised patients. The genome of P. aeruginosa strain PAO1 has been reported to contain 5570 potential proteins. The value of this genomic database is that new proteins can be recognized to use as diagnostic markers, novel drug targets, and to better understand the physiology of this organism. However, similar to what has been observed in other sequenced bacterial genomes, approximately one third of the potential proteins have no known function. This is somewhat surprising given the long-standing interest in P. aeruginosa as an opportunistic pathogen. Obviously new tools, in addition to sequence similarity analysis, are needed to determine the role of these proteins. Proteomics using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis followed by mass spectrometry to detect and identify P. aeruginosa proteins represents a novel approach to address this gap.