0 (Bendtsen et al., 2005a). The Grand average of hydropathy score, GRAVY, was calculated using the xtalpred server (http://ffas.burnham.org/XtalPred-cgi/xtal.pl). Predictions of transmembrane helices were performed using the tmhmm 2.0 server (Krogh et al., 2001). To identify proteins associated with

the membrane fraction, H. seropedicae cells Mitomycin C ic50 were disrupted and the membrane-associated proteins separated from the soluble proteins by ultracentrifugation. Membrane extracts were subjected to 2D-PAGE and 109 protein spots present in the gel (Fig. 1) were subjected to PMF analysis in comparison with the partial genome data from H. seropedicae (http://www.genopar.org). We identified 79 spots representing 45 different proteins; 12 of these have not been previously identified in the H. seropedicae 2D reference map, including five hypothetical proteins of unknown function (Table 1). Several computational methods were used to determine whether the identified proteins were functionally related to the cell membrane (Table 1). Two proteins gave a positive hit for transmembrane helices using tmhmm 2.0 software (Table 1). The low representation of integral membrane proteins found in the gel seems to be a common drawback of the 2D gel technique (Santoni et al., 2000). The hydrophobic

nature does not favor the isoelectrofocusing of these proteins. Furthermore, the hydrophobic domains are all usually not properly digested with trypsin, compromising the efficiency Osimertinib solubility dmso of the PMF analysis. We noted that 20 of 45 identified proteins were predicted to be membrane-associated by at least one of the computational methods used. An inspection of the remaining 25 proteins indicated that 11 are known to be functionally related to membrane proteins, including proteins related to the electron transport chain, flagella biosynthesis, chemotaxis, ATP synthase, cell envelope biogenesis and PII proteins. Seven of the remaining 14 proteins were previously described as the top

30 most abundant proteins in the H. seropedicae 2D reference map (Chaves et al., 2007). Highly abundant soluble proteins may be trapped inside the membrane vesicles formed during cellular disruption, and hence frequently contaminate membrane preparations (Santoni et al., 2000). We have no explanation for seven of the proteins present in the membrane extract; of these, three are hypothetical with unknown function and thus might be functionally associated with the cell membrane. Interestingly, we identified three spots matching the ammonium assimilatory enzyme glutamine synthetase (GS) in the membrane fraction (Fig. 1, Table 1). Analysis of cellular fractions using an anti-GS antibody revealed that the enzyme is found in both cytoplasm and membrane fractions and that its distribution is not affected by an ammonium shock (Supporting Information, Fig. S1).