Journal Article
Applied and Environmental Microbiology, vol. 84, iss. 18, 2018
Authors
Joshua J. Rosnow, Sungmin Hwang, Bryan J. Killinger, Young-Mo Kim, Ronald J. Moore, Stephen R. Lindemann, Julie A. Maupin-Furlow, Aaron T. Wright, M. Julia Pettinari
Abstract
We demonstrate that a cobalamin chemical probe can be used to investigate
in vivo
roles of vitamin B
12
in microbial growth and regulation by supporting the growth of B
12
auxotrophic bacteria and archaea, enabling biological activity with three different cell macromolecules (RNA, DNA, and proteins), and facilitating functional proteomics to characterize B
12
-protein interactions. The B
12
-ABP is both transcriptionally and translationally able to regulate gene expression analogous to natural vitamin B
12
. The application of the B
12
-ABP at biologically relevant concentrations facilitates a unique way to measure B
12
microbial dynamics and identify new B
12
protein targets in bacteria and archaea. We demonstrate that the B
12
-ABP can be used to identify
in vivo
protein interactions across diverse microbes, from
E. coli
to microbes isolated from naturally occurring phototrophic biofilms to the salt-tolerant archaea
Haloferax volcanii
.
