Electrophoresis, Vol.37, No.5-6, 790-794, 2016
Proteomic profiling of an undefined microbial consortium cultured in fermented dairy manure: Methods development
The production of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA; bioplastics) from waste or surplus feed-stocks using mixed microbial consortia (MMC) and aerobic dynamic feeding (ADF) is a growing field within mixed culture biotechnology. This study aimed to optimize a 2DE workflow to investigate the proteome dynamics of an MMC synthesizing PHA from fermented dairy manure. To mitigate the challenges posed to effective 2DE by this complex sample matrix, the bacterial biomass was purified using Accudenz gradient centrifugation (AGC) before protein extraction. The optimized 2DE method yielded high-quality gels suitable for quantitative comparative analysis and subsequent protein identification by LC-MS/MS. The optimized 2DE method could be adapted to other proteomic investigations involving MMC in complex organic or environmental matrices.