Proteomics of Burkholderia mallei
EMSL Project ID
16104
Abstract
Burkholderia mallei is the cause of glanders. There is no rapid discriminating diagnostic assay, no vaccine, and reliable therapy. Gaps in our understanding and rapid diagnostics for the microbe can be narrowed after identifying relevant nucleotide sequence and antigenic targets with combination of complete comparative genomic and proteomic approaches. We have a unique opportunity to perform a proteomic complement to a separately funded genomic sequencing project of several virulent and avirulent (attenuated) strains (project underway with successful completion of sequences of several strains). We hypothesize that certain proteins are produced or not from the organism that accounts for its virulence and can provide diagnostic targets. We propose to perform proteomic (mass spectrometry and peptide mapping) studies which will provide complementary and convergent data to see if the gene of interest is being expressed and at a level of biologic significance. Proteins/peptides from a virulent strains will be compared to those from avirulent strains. We envision the use of both ion trap and FTICR instruments for this research that will preliminary consist of the proteomic characterization two different cell culture preparations from two different strains of Burkholderia mallei.
Project Details
Project type
Exploratory Research
Start Date
2006-03-20
End Date
2007-10-01
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Team Members