Extraction and Visualization of Protein Aggregates after Treatment of Escherichia coli with a Proteotoxic Stressor

Summary

This protocol describes the extraction and visualization of aggregated and soluble proteins from Escherichia coli after treatment with a proteotoxic antimicrobial. Following this procedure allows a qualitative comparison of protein aggregate formation in vivo in different bacterial strains and/or between treatments.

Abstract

The exposure of living organisms to environmental and cellular stresses often causes disruptions in protein homeostasis and can result in protein aggregation. The accumulation of protein aggregates in bacterial cells can lead to significant alterations in the cellular phenotypic behavior, including a reduction in growth rates, stress resistance, and virulence. Several experimental procedures exist for the examination of these stressor-mediated phenotypes. This paper describes an optimized assay for the extraction and visualization of aggregated and soluble proteins from different Escherichia coli strains after treatment with a silver-ruthenium-containing antimicrobial. This compound is known to generate reactive oxygen species and causes widespread protein aggregation.

The method combines a centrifugation-based separation of protein aggregates and soluble proteins from treated and untreated cells with subsequent separation and visualization by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and Coomassie staining. This approach is simple, fast, and allows a qualitative comparison of protein aggregate formation in different E. coli strains. The methodology has a wide range of applications, including the possibility to investigate the impact of other proteotoxic antimicrobials on in vivo protein aggregation in a wide range of bacteria. Moreover, the protocol can be used to identify genes that contribute to increased resistance to proteotoxic substances. Gel bands can be used for the subsequent identification of proteins that are particularly prone to aggregation.

Introduction

Bacteria are inevitably exposed to a myriad of environmental stresses, including low pH (e.g., in the mammalian stomach)^1,2, reactive oxygen and chlorine species (ROS/RCS) (e.g., during oxidative burst in phagocytes)^3,4,5, elevated temperatures (e.g., in hot springs or during heat-shock)^6,7, and several potent antimicrobials (e.g., AGXX used in this protocol)⁸. Proteins are particularly vulnerable to any of these stressors, and exposure....

Protocol

1. Stress treatment of E. coli strains MG1655 and CFT073

1. Inoculate 5 mL of lysogeny broth (LB) medium with a single colony of commensal E. coli strain MG1655 and uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) strain CFT073, respectively, and incubate for 14-16 h (overnight) at 37 °C and 300 rpm.
   NOTE: Escherichia coli CFT073 is a human pathogen. Handling of CFT073 must be performed with appropriate biosafety measures in a Biosafety Level-2 certified lab.
2. Dilute each str.......

Discussion

This protocol describes an optimized methodology for the analysis of protein aggregate formation after treatment of different E. coli strains with a proteotoxic antimicrobial. The protocol allows the simultaneous extraction of insoluble and soluble protein fractions from treated and untreated E. coli cells. Compared to existing protocols for protein aggregate isolation from cells^14,15,16,

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Chemicals/Reagents
Acetone	Fisher Scientific	67-64-1
30% Acrylamide/Bisacrylamide solution 29:1	Bio-Rad	1610156
Ammonium persulfate	Millipore Sigma	A3678-100G
Benzonase nuclease	Sigma	E1014-5KU
Bluestain 2 Protein ladder, 5-245 kDa	GoldBio	P008-500
β-mercaptoethanol	Millipore Sigma	M6250-100ML
Bromophenol blue	GoldBio	B-092-25
Coomassie Brilliant Blue R-250	MP Biomedicals LLC	821616
D-Glucose	Millipore Sigma	G8270-1KG
D-Sucrose	Acros Organics	57-50-1
Ethylenediamine tetra acetic acid (EDTA)	Sigma-Aldrich	SLBT9686
Glacial Acetic acid	Millipore Sigma	ARK2183-1L
Glycerol, 99%	Sigma-Aldrich	G5516-1L
Glycine	GoldBio	G-630-1
Hydrochloric acid, ACS reagent	Sigma-Aldrich	320331-2.5L
Isopropanol (2-Propanol)	Sigma	402893-2.5L
LB broth (Miller)	Millipore Sigma	L3522-1KG
LB broth with agar (Miller)	Millipore Sigma	L2897-1KG
Lysozyme	GoldBio	L-040-25
10x MOPS Buffer	Teknova	M2101
Nonidet P-40	Thomas Scientific	9036-19-5
Potassium phosphate, dibasic	Sigma-Aldrich	P3786-1KG
Potassium phosphate, monobasic	Acros Organics	7778-77-0
Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)	Sigma-Aldrich	L3771-500G
Tetramethylethylenediamine (TEMED)	Millipore Sigma	T9281-50ML
Thiamine	Sigma-Aldrich	T4625-100G
100% Trichloroacetic acid	Millipore Sigma	T6399-100G
Tris base	GoldBio	T-400-1
Material/Equipment
Centrifuge tubes (15 mL)	Alkali Scientific	JABG-1019
Erlenmeyer flask (125 mL)	Carolina	726686
Erlenmeyer flask (500 mL)	Carolina	726694
Freezer: -80 °C	Fisher Scientific
Glass beads (0.5 mm)	BioSpec Products	1107-9105
Microcentrifuge	Hermle	Z216MK
Microcentriguge tubes (1.7 mL)	VWR International	87003-294
Microcentriguge tubes (2.0 mL)	Axygen Maxiclear Microtubes	MCT-200-C
Plastic cuvettes	Fischer Scientific	14-377-012
Power supply	ThermoFisher Scientific	EC105
Rocker	Alkali Scientific	RS7235
Shaking incubator (37 °C)	Benchmark Scientific
Small glass plate	Bio-Rad	1653311
Spacer plates (1 mm)	Bio-Rad	1653308
Spectrophotometer	Thermoscientific	3339053
Tabletop centrifuge for 15 mL centrifuge tubes	Beckman-Coulter
Vertical gel electrophoresis chamber	Bio-Rad	1658004
Vortexer	Fisher Vortex Genie 2	12-812
Thermomixer	Benchmark Scientific	H5000-HC
10 well comb	Bio-Rad	1653359