Identification of uropathogenic Escherichia coli surface proteins by shotgun proteomics

Uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) cause the majority of uncomplicated urinary tract infections in humans. In the process of identifying candidate antigens for a vaccine, two methods for the identification of the UPEC surface proteome during growth in human urine were investigated. The first approach utilized a protease to 'shave' surface-exposed peptides from the bacterial cell surface and identify them by mass spectrometry. Although this approach has been successfully applied to a Gram-positive pathogen, the adaptation to Gram-negative UPEC resulted in cytoplasmic protein contamination. In a more direct approach, whole-cell bacteria were labeled with a biotin tag to indicate surface-exposed peptides and two-dimensional liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (2-DLC-MS/MS) was used to identify proteins isolated from the outer membrane. This method discovered 25 predicted outer membrane proteins expressed by UPEC while growing in human urine. Nine of the 25 predicted outer membrane proteins were part of iron transport systems or putative iron-regulated virulence proteins, indicating the importance of iron acquisition during growth in urine. One of the iron transport proteins identified, Hma, appears to be a promising vaccine candidate is being further investigated. The method described here presents a system to rapidly identify the outer membrane proteome of bacteria, which may prove valuable in vaccine development.