Monday, July 30, 2007 - 3:30 PM
S57

Proteomic analysis of Carboxydothermus hydrogenoformans grown on carbon monoxide or syngas

Vicki Thompson, David Reed, Kastli Schaller, Joni Barnes, and Cody Permann. Biological Sciences, Idaho National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1625, Idaho Falls, ID 83415

Coal gasification converts coal into syngas that can be used for fuels and chemicals. Current practice uses a palladium catalyst to convert syngas via a water gas shift reaction into the clean burning hydrogen fuel.  However, it is uneconomical to carry this reaction to completion and unacceptably high levels of CO remain.  The thermophilic anaerobe, Carboxydothermus hydrogenoformans, is capable of chemolithotrophic growth on CO as a sole carbon and energy source and producing H2 and CO2 as the only products.  This organism has the potential to be coupled with the current catalytic process and eliminate the need to separate unreacted CO from the product stream. 

 C. hydrogenoformans were grown in triplicate on either 55% CO and or syngas.  Harvested cells were disrupted by a French pressure cell.  Proteins were digested with trypsin and the resulting peptides from the paired samples were isobarically labeled, separated by liquid chromatography, and spotted directly onto MALDI plates.  Samples were analyzed by quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry. The data generated was analyzed using Mascot™ and protein assignments were statistically validated using PeptideProphet™ and ProteinProphet™. 

 Initial results showed relatively few proteins up regulated in the presence of syngas and while several of these are proteins of unknown function, others may be related to sporulation, iron chelation, and sulfur metabolism.   A total of 37 proteins were down regulated by 2-fold or more in the presence of syngas.  General classes of proteins down regulated included those related to amino acid and protein synthesis, anabolic activities, chemotaxis, and cell division. 


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