Microbial Proteomics Using Mass Spectrometry

Proteomic analyses involve a series of intricate, interdependent steps involving approaches and technical issues that must be fully coordinated to obtain the optimal amount of required information about the test subject. Fortunately, many of these steps are common to most test subjects, requiring only modifications to or, in some cases, substitution of some of the steps to ensure they are relevant to the desired objective of a study. This fortunate occurrence creates an essential core of proteomic approaches and techniques that are consistently available for most studies, regardless of test subject. In this chapter, an overview of some of these core approaches, techniques, and mass spectrometric instrumentation is given, while indicating how such steps are useful for and applied to bacterial investigations. To exemplify how such proteomic concepts and techniques are applicable to bacterial investigations, a practical, quantitative method useful for bacterial proteomic analysis is presented with a discussion of possibilities, pitfalls, and some emerging technology to provide a compilation of information from the diverse literature that is intermingled with experimental experience.