Proteomics of bacterial pathogens

Significant progress has been made in the characterisation of bacterial pathogens using a combination of genomic and proteomic technologies. The data generated have improved our understanding of how these microbes interact with the human host to cause disease.

Practical outcomes include the identification of putative vaccines and new drug targets.

This review highlights those developments achieved through the use of proteomic technologies including established electrophoretic methods as well as state-of-the-art mass spectrometry based techniques.

Proteomics has been used at diverse levels to investigate microbial physiology, gene expression and the complex interactions between bacteria and their hosts. Pathogenic determinants are identified through comparative proteomics between virulent and avirulent isolates whereas complex disease phenotypes can be correlated with specific proteomic signatures identified through the analysis of large collections of natural isolates. Initial progress has been achieved on defining the bacterial proteome during in vivo infection, which will probably be a key research area over the coming years.