First proteomics paper to read in 2014? Looked around, then:
Decision made. Proper on so many levels.
Anyway! Bacillus anthracis is pretty much Bacillus cereus with an extra plasmid or two depending on the strain and other complicated factors. Problem is that we want to really identify anthracis and not identify extremely related (and extremely common) spore forming organisms when we're assessing biological threats. Of particular interest are pXO1 and pXO2 plasmids that can be indicative of super virulent (or even militarized strains).
So what can we do to tell extremely related things apart? Crank up the resolution! In this case, these researchers used an LTQ Orbitrap Discovery and looked for differences in a bottom-up approach between various strains of anthracis and cereus until they found a nice set of unique peptides belonging to the nasty strains. Then they validated their new differential markers by moving their discovery results over to SRMs on a TSQ Quantum Ultra. They show that even in extremely complex mixtures, their new markers are specific enough and sensitive enough to clearly differentiate virulent anthracis from its closest relatives.
Good paper for you microbiologists who are interested in proteomics, as well as a good example of moving your discovery results over to a standardized validation assay. Also a great example of an Orbitrap Discovery out there and still doing some great science!
The paper is open access for the time being and you can find it here.
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