Name: enrichment of bacterial lipoproteins and preparation of n-terminal lipopeptides for structural determination by mass spectrometry
Uploaded: 2018-05-21T12:30:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Enrichment of Bacterial Lipoproteins and Preparation of N-terminal Lipopeptides for Structural Determination by Mass Spectrometry at JoVE.com

Research in the Meredith lab was supported by startup funds provided by the Eberly College of Science (Pennsylvania State University). We thank Dr. Tatiana Laremore for expert technical advice and access to equipment at the Penn State Proteomics and Mass Spectrometry Core Facility, University Park, PA, where mass spectrometric analyses were performed.

1. Cell Growth and Lysis
<ol>
	<li>Grow bacteria in 15 mL tryptic soy broth (TSB) or similar rich media to late exponential phase (OD600 of 1.0 - 1.5). Harvest cells by centrifugation, wash once with Tris-buffered saline/EDTA (TBSE) and continue with protocol or freeze until use. 
	NOTE: TBSE: 20 mM Tris-hydrochloride (HCl), pH 8.0, 130 mM sodium chloride (NaCl), and 5 mM ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA)). Lipoprotein expression and modification can be influenced by growth conditions (e.g.</em...

<ol>
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The protocol herein describes two distinct stages of lipoprotein characterization: enrichment by TX-114 phase partitioning and structural determination by MALDI-TOF MS. During TX-114 extraction, additional centrifugation removes contaminating proteins that precipitate during this process, followed by acetone precipitation to yield highly enriched lipoproteins. By limiting the scale of each preparation to 15-mL worth of cells, several samples can be easily processed in parallel, and if desired, pooled at the end of the pr...

Bacterial lipoproteins are characterized by a conserved N-terminal lipid-modified cysteine that anchors the globular protein domain to the cell membrane surface. They are universally distributed in bacteria, constituting 2 to 5% of all cellular genes within a typical genome1. Lipoproteins play critical roles in a wide variety of cellular processes, including nutrient uptake, signal transduction, assembly of protein complexes, and in maintaining cell envelope structural integrity2. In pathogenic bacteria, lipoproteins serve as virulence factors3,4. During an infection, recognition of N-terminal lipopeptides by Toll-like receptor (TLR) 2 incites an innate immune response to remove invading pathogens. Depending on the N-terminal acylation state, lipoproteins are generally recognized by alternate TLR2 heterodimeric complexes. TLR2-TLR1 recognizes N-acylated lipopeptides, while TLR2-TLR6 binds free lipopeptide &#945;-amino termini. Once bound, the signaling pathways converge to induce secretion of proinflammatory cytokines3,4.
It was previously thought that lipoproteins from Gram-positive bacteria were diacylated and those from Gram-negative bacteria were triacylated, differing in the absence or presence of an amide-linked fatty acid on the conserved N-terminal cysteine residue. This assumption was supported by the lack of sequence orthologs in Gram-positive genomes to Lnt, the Gram-negative N-acyl transferase that forms triacylated lipoproteins5. However, recent studies have revealed lipoprotein triacylation in Gram-positive Firmicutes that lack lnt, as well as three novel N-terminal lipoprotein structures, termed the peptidyl, lyso, and N-acetyl forms6,7,8. These findings raise questions about possible yet-to-be-discovered lipoprotein forms, alongside fundamental questions about how these novel lipoproteins are made and what physiological purpose or advantage the various forms impart. Furthermore, they clearly demonstrate the current inability of genomics to predict lipoprotein structure. Indeed, we recently identified a novel class of lipoprotein N-acyl transferases, called Lit, from Enterococcus faecalis and Bacillus cereus that makes lyso-form lipoproteins9. This indicates the need to experimentally verify lipoprotein structure, which can be challenging due to their extremely hydrophobic nature and limited methods available to characterize their molecular structure.
To facilitate studies on lipoprotein induction of the host immune response, as well as N-terminal structural determination, we have adapted several previously-described protocols in order to purify bacterial lipoproteins and prepare the N-terminal tryptic lipopeptides for analysis by MALDI-TOF MS6,10,11,12. Lipoproteins are enriched using an established Triton X-114 (henceforth referred to as surfactant or TX-114) phase partitioning method, with optimization to remove contaminating non-lipoproteins and increase lipoprotein yield. These lipoproteins are suitable for direct use in TLR assays or for further purification by SDS-PAGE. For MALDI-TOF MS, transfer of the lipoproteins to nitrocellulose membrane provides a scaffold for efficient in situ trypsin digestion, washing, and subsequent elution from the membrane surface, resulting in highly purified N-terminal lipopeptides. Nitrocellulose has been shown to facilitate sample handling and improve sequence coverage for highly hydrophobic peptides from integral membrane proteins13,14, as well as lipoproteins9,10. The method has the additional advantage of fractionating peptides based on polarity, so that intermediate wash solutions can be analyzed for high confidence protein identification simultaneously with N-terminal structural determination in a single experiment. This protocol uniquely features intentional sodium adduct formation to promote parent ion fragmentation towards dehydroalanyl ions during MS/MS, aiding in structural assignment of the N-acylation state. The N-terminus is both the most variable and key feature related to TLR recognition of lipoproteins. Taken together, this protocol has allowed intensive and reproducible studies on lipoproteins, with the individual stages of purification and structural determination by MALDI-TOF MS easily adapted depending on the overall goal of the experiment.

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>Materials</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>0.01 mm Zirconia/silica beads</td>
			<td>BioSpec Products</td>
			<td>110791012</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Acetic acid</td>
			<td>EMD</td>
			<td>AX0073-9</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Acetone</td>
			<td>EMD</td>
			<td>AX0116-6</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Acetonitrile</td>
			<td>EMD</td>
			<td>AX0142-6</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Ammonium bicarbonate</td>
			<td>Fluka Analytical</td>
			<td>09830</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>BioTrace NT Nitrocellulose</td>
			<td>PALL Life Sciences</td>
			<td>66485</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Bovine serum albumin (BSA) digest standard</td>
			<td>Protea</td>
			<td>PS-204-1</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Chloroform</td>
			<td>Acros Organics</td>
			<td>423550025</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA)</td>
			<td>Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>BP118</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>HPLC Grade water</td>
			<td>EMD</td>
			<td>WX0008-1</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Lysozyme</td>
			<td>Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>BP535-1</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Methanol</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>34860</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Phenylmethyl sulfonyl fluoride (PMSF)</td>
			<td>Amresco</td>
			<td>0754</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Pierce trypsin protease</td>
			<td>Thermo Scientific</td>
			<td>90057</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Ponceau S</td>
			<td>Acros Organics</td>
			<td>161470100</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Protein LoBind Tube 0.5mL</td>
			<td>Eppendorf</td>
			<td>022431064</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Sodium bicarbonate</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>792519</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Sodium chloride</td>
			<td>Macron Fine Chemicals</td>
			<td>7581-06</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Trifluoroacetic acid (TFA)</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>299537</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Tris-hydrochloride (HCl)</td>
			<td>Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>BP152</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Triton X-114</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>93422</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Tryptic soy broth (TSB)</td>
			<td>BD</td>
			<td>211822</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>&#945;-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid (MS Grade)</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>C8982</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Name</td>
			<td>Company</td>
			<td>Catalog Number</td>
			<td>Comments</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Equipment</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>MagNALyser</td>
			<td>Roche</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Trans-Blot Turbo Transfer System</td>
			<td>Bio-Rad</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>MALDI-TOF target</td>
			<td>Bruker Daltonics</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Ultraflextreme MALDI-TOF-TOF</td>
			<td>Bruker Daltonics</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Equipped with a 355 nm frequency-tripled Nd:YAG smartbeam-II laser</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

enrichment of bacterial lipoproteins and preparation of n-terminal lipopeptides for structural determination by mass spectrometry

Lipoproteins are important constituents of the bacterial cell envelope and potent activators of the mammalian innate immune response. Despite their significance to both cell physiology and immunology, much remains to be discovered about novel lipoprotein forms, how they are synthesized, and the effect of the various forms on host immunity. To enable thorough studies on lipoproteins, this protocol describes a method for bacterial lipoprotein enrichment and preparation of N-terminal tryptic lipopeptides for structural determination by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). Expanding on an established Triton X-114 phase partitioning method for lipoprotein extraction and enrichment from the bacterial cell membrane, the protocol includes additional steps to remove non-lipoprotein contaminants, increasing lipoprotein yield and purity. Since lipoproteins are commonly used in Toll-like receptor (TLR) assays, it is critical to first characterize the N-terminal structure by MALDI-TOF MS. Herein, a method is presented to isolate concentrated hydrophobic peptides enriched in N-terminal lipopeptides suitable for direct analysis by MALDI-TOF MS/MS. Lipoproteins that have been separated by Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate Poly-Acrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) are transferred to a nitrocellulose membrane, digested in situ with trypsin, sequentially washed to remove polar tryptic peptides, and finally eluted with chloroform-methanol. When coupled with MS of the more polar trypsinized peptides from wash solutions, this method provides the ability to both identify the lipoprotein and characterize its N-terminus in a single experiment. Intentional sodium adduct formation can also be employed as a tool to promote more structurally informative fragmentation spectra. Ultimately, enrichment of lipoproteins and determination of their N-terminal structures will permit more extensive studies on this ubiquitous class of bacterial proteins.

A schematic of the protocol is provided in Figure 1. The lipoprotein-enriched fraction extracted from Enterococcus faecalis ATCC 19433 by TX-114 is shown in Figure 2. For comparison, the banding pattern of the precipitated protein fraction is also shown. Proteins from this fraction were confirmed by MALDI-MS to be highly abundant contaminating proteins other than lipoproteins (Table 1). The mass spectra ...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Enrichment of Bacterial Lipoproteins and Preparation of N-terminal Lipopeptides for Structural Determination by Mass Spectrometry at JoVE.com

Enrichment of Bacterial Lipoproteins and Preparation of N-terminal Lipopeptides for Structural Determination by Mass Spectrometry

The enrichment of bacterial lipoproteins using a non-ionic surfactant phase partitioning method is described for direct use in TLR assays or other applications. Further steps are detailed to prepare N-terminal tryptic lipopeptides for structural characterization by mass spectrometry.

Lipoproteins are important constituents of the bacterial cell envelope and potent activators of the mammalian innate immune response. Despite their ...

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