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bioRxiv · 10.1101/367599

Triflic acid treatment enables LC-MS/MS analysis of insoluble bacterial biomass

Wang, A. Y.·Thuy-Boun, P. S.·Stupp, G. S.·Su, A. I.·Wolan, D. W.
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Abstract

The lysis and extraction of soluble bacterial proteins from cells is a common practice for proteomics analyses, but insoluble bacterial biomasses are often left behind. Here, we show that with triflic acid treatment, the insoluble bacterial biomass of Gram- and Gram+ bacteria can be rendered soluble. We use LC-MS/MS shotgun proteomics to show that bacterial proteins in the soluble and insoluble post-lysis fractions differ significantly. Additionally, in the case of Gram- Pseudomonas aeruginosa, triflic acid treatment enables the enrichment of cell envelope-associated proteins. Finally, we apply triflic acid to a human microbiome sample to show that this treatment is robust and enables the identification of a new, complementary subset of proteins from a complex microbial mixture.

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Wang, A. Y., Thuy-Boun, P. S., Stupp, G. S., Su, A. I., Wolan, D. W.. 2018-07-11. Triflic acid treatment enables LC-MS/MS analysis of insoluble bacterial biomass. https://doi.org/10.1101/367599

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