First partial proteome of the poultry pathogen Mycoplasma synoviae

Mycoplasma synoviae is responsible for respiratory tract disease and synovitis in chickens and turkeys. In an attempt to identify the most prominent proteins expressed by this microorganism, a proteome map of M. synoviae was developed by using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis in combination with mass spectrometry. Based on the genome sequence of M. synoviae, a total of 30 different coding DNA sequences, including one hypothetical and one conserved-hypothetical protein, were experimentally verified with the identification of the corresponding protein products by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF). The identified proteins were assigned according to the Clusters of Orthologous Groups of proteins functional classification. M. synoviae has 694 predicted CDSs. Overall, in this work 416 proteins spots were resolved in Coomassie Blue stained 2DE gels and were analyzed by mass spectrometry (MS). Altogether, we have achieved by MS the identification of 78 protein spots, corresponding to 30 different proteins. This is the first proteome map to be described in M. synoviae, and it is expected to be useful as a reference for comparative analysis.