Identifications of low level virulence factors in protein fractions of Burkholderia cepacia using Mass Spectrometric techniques

摘要

Burkholderia is a gram negative ubiquitous bacterium that can be found in variety of eco systems.1 There are number of species, some are beneficial to the environment and some are more pathogenic and are recognized as possible bioterrorist agents. Among the genus, B.pseudomallei and B.mallei are the most pathogenic species. People have used various techniques to identify the virulence factors of these bacteria. Most of the virulence factors present in these organisms are expressed in low abundance and normally are identified and studied by expressing them in E. coli. Here we demonstrate the use of mass spectrometry as an alternative technique to identify low abundant virulence factors from these bacteria without expressing them in E. coli.