Subcellular proteomic (SCP) analyses play a pivotal role in elucidating bacterial pathogenesis by analyzing the proteome within specific subcellular compartments of bacterial cells. This subcellular proteomics approach characterizes bacterial proteins within distinct compartments, reducing complexity by excluding highly abundant proteins and providing insights into their organization and proportional abundance1,2. For instance, employing subcellular fractionation and LC-MS/MS techniques, a study on Shewanella oneidensis unveiled a substantial portion of its proteome, furnishing crucial details regarding the compartment architecture of cell and protein abundance. This study serves as a foundational framework for subsequent investigations into subcellular organization within gram-negative bacteria3. In the realm of bacterial pathogenesis, delineating the bacterial proteome during in vivo infection is imperative for comprehending the mechanisms driving pathogenicity4. Investigating the proteome of intracellular Salmonella within epithelial cells across various infection stages has been instrumental in unveiling the adaptive strategies employed by bacterial pathogens within their intracellular milieu4,5. SCP strategies provide comprehensive insights into cellular dynamics by assessing protein abundance and translocation within various cellular compartments. This method facilitates the extensive identification of proteins from diverse bacterial compartments, enhancing the thorough analysis of bacterial proteomes6,7.
The subcellular distribution of proteins not only dictates their functional activity but also enhances their functional diversity8. For instance, enzymes exhibit varied regulatory mechanisms and activity levels depending on their subcellular localization. Transglutaminases (TGases), for instance, display distinct roles or regulatory mechanisms across different subcellular compartments in pollen tubes: cytoplasmic TGases incorporate primary amines into cytosolic proteins (e.g., actin and tubulin) in a Ca(2+)-dependent manner, interacting with the cytoskeleton; membrane TGases are associated with Golgi and plasma membranes, suggesting a role in exocytotic delivery; and cell wall-associated TGases regulate apical growth by colocalizing with cell wall markers. These functional distinctions are mediated by compartment-specific roles9. Furthermore, the repair of oxidized proteins in the bacterial envelope underscores the critical role of enzyme systems within specific cellular compartments exposed to reactive oxygen species10. Consider endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), whose subcellular localization is modulated by lipid modifications, influencing its interaction with diverse cellular membranes11. Enzyme compartmentalization maintains distinct environments conducive to interactions between enzymes and substrates, thus facilitating compartment-specific metabolic processes12.
Bacteria and other prokaryotes do not have clear subcellular organelles; there are distinct regions, including cytoplasm, inner membrane, periplasm, and outer membrane. Most of the biochemical and physiological functions in the organism are organized in various subcellar compartments13. So, subcellular localization of proteins is important to predict their functional characteristics. However, extracting subcellular proteins from gram-negative bacteria poses challenges due to their complex double-membraned phospholipid bilayer. Conventional extraction methods, employing detergents like sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and additives such as urea, often compromise membrane protein integrity, impacting downstream analyses14,15. Moreover, the lipid composition plays a significant role in shaping the conformational alterations of membrane proteins. The success of solubilization depends on factors like the detergent-lipid-protein ratio, as the process involves detergent insertion into the lipid bilayer followed by protein solubilization16. The choice of detergent is critical for solubilizing membrane proteins effectively, considering factors like cloud point temperature and incubation time17. The lipid environment can influence the conformational changes of membrane proteins18,19.
Detergents are essential for extracting membrane proteins from biological membranes and ensuring their solubility in aqueous solutions, a prerequisite for subsequent protein purification. However, purifying membrane proteins is often challenging because they are removed from their native lipid membrane environment and placed in a detergent buffer, which only partially replicates the membrane's physical and chemical properties20. After extraction, membrane proteins are typically purified in subsequent processes using dialysis, protein precipitation and some chromatography methods as soluble proteins20,21. Phase separation offers a powerful alternative or complement to chromatography-based purification protocols and can be applied directly to solubilized proteins. Basically, phase separation allows integral membrane proteins to partition into detergent enrich phase and cytosolic proteins in the detergent-depleted aqueous phase20,22. Several detergents have been described as being used in the solubilization of membrane proteins in earlier studies20. These include the Triton family (Triton X-100 & Triton X-114), Tween family (Tween-20, & -80), anionic detergents, cationic detergents, polyoxyethylene glycol monoether detergents etc., but they have pros and cons in terms of proteins structure and function20. The physicochemical properties of these detergents greatly influence the phase partition and solubilization of membrane proteins20. Detergents are amphipathic molecules with a polar headgroup and a hydrophobic hydrocarbon chain. At low concentrations, they exist as monomers in water. Above the critical micelle concentration (CMC), they form micelles whose size depends on the detergent type, with the aggregation number indicating the number of molecules per micelle (also called as micelle molecular weight). Another important factor is "cloud point" which can be reached by changing the temperature of an aqueous micellar detergent solution that becomes turbid and eventually forms two distinct phases. This process is known as phase separation or cloud point extraction. A high CMC can yield more membrane proteins corresponding to high concentrations of detergent with weaker binding, which can be dialyzed against a buffer with a defined detergent concentration20. However, reaching a high CMC in most detergents requires a high cloud point temperature, which can affect the extracted protein structure and function and affect downstream processes. Even the high concentration of detergent in this phase might be harmful to protein and create problems in liquid handling for pipetting precise volume due to high viscosity. For example, triton X-100 has a high yield of membrane proteins in the detergent micelle above the cloud point temperature of 64-65 °C. To maintain the working temperature, 9%-23% (NH4)2SO4 or 16%-25% NaCl addition can be reduced to room temperature (RT), resulting in a high concentration of detergent, which likely affects protein stability. Similarly, Tween-based extraction uses a high cloud point temperature (76 °C for tween 20 and 93 °C for tween 80). Anionic detergent SDS is frequently used in protein applications but usually denatures proteins20. Researchers, aiming to efficiently extract membrane proteins, identified Triton X-114 as a classic detergent due to its optimal cloud point temperature of approximately 22 °C, ideal for membrane protein studies. First introduced by Bordier in 1981, Triton X-114 has since been widely used for membrane protein extraction and purification across diverse sources, including animal and plant tissues as well as microorganisms20,22. Triton X-114's low CMC prevents its removal by dialysis; however, its mild nature minimizes the denaturation of membrane proteins in the detergent-enriched phase. Additionally, Triton X-114 forms smaller micelles (n = 7-8) compared to Triton X-10020. James G. Pryde's study protocol employed Triton X-114 for membrane protein extraction from cultured mammalian cells. By using a cloud point temperature above 20 °C (incubation at 30 °C for 3 min), integral membrane proteins partitioned into the detergent-enriched phase, while peripheral and cytosolic proteins were recovered from the detergent-depleted aqueous phase22. Furthermore, David A. Haake et al. used Triton X-114 to extract outer membrane proteins (OMPs) from Leptospira interrogans, with and without CaCl2 as an additive23,24. Later studies confirmed that Triton X-114 effectively extracts OMPs from subcellular compartments without additives like glycerol or CaCl225,26. However, the inclusion of salts can increase detergent concentration, which may affect large-scale proteome studies using high-throughput mass spectrometry20. In our work on subcellular proteome analysis, we employed Triton X-114 coupled with tandem mass spectrometry, achieving significant enrichment across all subcellular compartments, including cytoplasmic, inner membrane, and outer membrane proteins25,26. The primary aim of the present protocol is to efficiently enrich subcellular compartments of a typical gram-negative bacterial cell while minimizing issues in downstream processes. Additionally, the protocol is designed to be cost-effective and time-efficient. Here, we elaborate on the lab-developed optimized protocol for subcellular protein isolation and discuss each bottleneck encountered during the extraction process.