A study published in the Aug. 20 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences observed a 61 percent coverage of the microbe's possible predicted set of proteins, or its proteome. This is the most complete proteome reporting to date of any organism. (The proteome is the collection of proteins expressed by a cell under a specific set of conditions at a specific time.) PNNL scientists identified more than 1,900 proteins in D. radiodurans.
Studying the amount of each protein present at any time has become more important as scientists attempt to learn which proteins are involved in important cellular functions. DOE's Microbial Genome Program, an element of the Genomes to Life Program, provided the genomic information for various microorganisms, including D. radiodurans, and developed ways to predict the set of possible proteins, which hold the key to why and how these microbes carry out different functions.
D. radiodurans is of interest because of its potential to degrade radioactive materials, its ability to withstand high levels of radiation and its impressive DNA repair capabilities. The Guinness Book of World Records once called it the world's toughest bacterium.
"We've been able to see more of the proteins, especially those proteins that exist in small quantities," said Mary Lipton, PNNL senior research scientist and lead author of the PNAS paper. "Because our coverage is unprecedented, we're now able to provide biologists with protein-level information they never had access to before."
To identify proteins involved in va
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Contact: Staci Maloof
staci.maloof@pnl.gov
509-372-6313
DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
21-Aug-2002