What Have We Learned From Brucella Proteomics?
Esteban Chaves-Olarte, Caterina Guzmán-Verri, Eustache Paramithiotis, and Edgardo Moreno
from: Brucella: Molecular Microbiology and Genomics (Edited by: Ignacio López-Goñi and David O'Callaghan). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2012)
Abstract
Members of the genus Brucella infect and cause disease in a wide variety of mammals, including humans. Despite this host diversity, the clinical and pathological manifestations of brucellosis seem to be conserved within certain range, being the reproductive tract the main target of infection. The pathogenesis of brucellosis is dependent on the ability of the bacterium to invade and replicate within the endoplasmic reticulum of epithelial and phagocytic cells. From this perspective, the use of comprehensive system biology approaches, like proteomics, has contributed to dissect and unravel some aspects of the life cycle of Brucella organisms. In this review, we describe the advantages and limitations of the proteomic approaches employed in the field of brucellosis to discern, at the cellular and the molecular level, the pathogenesis of brucellosis. The emerging picture is that of a pathogen that does not rely on discrete virulence determinants to establish successful infections, but rather of a microbe that utilizes synchronized complex metabolic and signaling systems to reach its replicating niche at the endoplasmic reticulum of host cells. These systems include secretion machineries like the type IV secretion VirB system and signaling complexes like the two component regulatory BvrR/BvrS system and the quorum sensing transcriptional regulator VjbR, all of which have a profound impact on the metabolic state of the bacterium and particularly on the homeostasis of the cell envelope. In addition, we also discuss how the systematic comparison at the proteomic level of different strains, species and mutants within the Brucella genus has improved the experimental approaches used for diagnosis, taxonomy and phylogeny read more ...
