Visual proteomics of the human pathogen Leptospira interrogans

Martin Beck, Johan A. Malmström, Vinzenz Lange, Alexander Schmidt, Eric W. Deutsch, Ruedi Aebersold

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

134 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Systems biology conceptualizes biological systems as dynamic networks of interacting elements, whereby functionally important properties are thought to emerge from the structure of such networks. Owing to the ubiquitous role of complexes of interacting proteins in biological systems, their subunit composition and temporal and spatial arrangement within the cell are of particular interest. 'Visual proteomics' attempts to localize individual macromolecular complexes inside of intact cells by template matching reference structures into cryo-electron tomograms. Here we combined quantitative mass spectrometry and cryo-electron tomography to detect, count and localize specific protein complexes in the cytoplasm of the human pathogen Leptospira interrogans. We describe a scoring function for visual proteomics and assess its performance and accuracy under realistic conditions. We discuss current and general limitations of the approach, as well as expected improvements in the future.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)817-823
Number of pages7
JournalNature Methods
Volume6
Issue number11
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 19 Oct 2009
Externally publishedYes

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