A proteome reference map and virulence factors analysis of Yersinia pestis 91001.

In this report, we carried out the in-depth proteomic analysis of Yersinia pestis strain 91001 under in vitro flea-simulated condition using three technique routes, SDS-PAGE combined with LTQ-FT, two-dimensional liquid chromatography peptide (2D-LC peptide) separation combined with LTQ-FT and intact protein separation followed by 2D-LC peptide separation combined with LTQ-FT. Totally, 1926 proteins (13082 peptides) were identified, covering 46.50% (1926/4142) of the predicted proteome. Transcriptome analysis based on a whole genome DNA microarray of Y. pestis defined 1655 genes with the coincidence of 56.65% to the proteomic results. Through analyzing the identifications of virulence factors involving in the life cycle of Y. pestis, it was found that Hms system and murine toxin, which are virulence factors involved in Y. pestis maintenance in flea, were highly expressed in our analysis. Moreover, some virulence factors also appeared with different extents, such as plasminogen activator, PhoP/PhoQ two-component system, type III secretion system, iron acquisition systems (Ybt, Yfe and Yfu) and ferric uptake regulator. These results indicated that Y. pestis may prepare itself with various strategies in advance for its survival when it evades the hosts. The protein identifications can be accessed through PRIDE database (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/pride) with accession number 18578-18605