Proteome analysis and comparison of Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824 and Spo0A strain variants

The proteomic profiles of several Clostridium acetobutylicum strains were compared by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and mass spectroscopy. The proteomic profile of C. acetobutylicum wild type strain ATCC 824 with and without a commonly used control plasmid and with a spo0A overexpression plasmid pMSPOA was compared. A total of 2,081 protein spots were analyzed; 23 proteins were chosen to be identified of which 18 were unique and 5 were proteins located in more than one location. The proteins identified were classified into heat shock stress response, acid and solvent formation, and transcription and translation proteins. Spo0A was identified and its protein expression was confirmed to be absent in the spo0A knockout SKO1 strain as expected, as was the protein Adc, which is known to be regulated by Spo0A. The expression of six proteins was not detected in strain SKO1 indicating these proteins require Spo0A. Spo0A overexpression affected the abundance of proteins involved in glycolysis, translation, heat shock stress response, and energy production. Two features were identified: five of the 23 proteins identified were located in more than one position and clusters of protein spots resembled fingers of a straightened hand. Normally a protein localizes to only one spot on the gel; localization of a protein to more than one spot is indicative of post-translational modifications, suggesting that such modification of proteins may be a more prevalent mechanism in C. acetoblitylicum than previously thought. The clusters of protein spots resembling fingers of a straightened hand were in the acidic high molecular weight areas. Two such protein spots were identified as variants of the same protein, GroEL.