Outer membrane proteome of Prevotella intermedia 17: identification of thioredoxin and iron-repressible hemin uptake loci

Although hemin is an indispensable nutrient for the oral pathogen Prevotella intermedia, not much is known regarding the molecular mechanisms of hemin acquisition. The availability of the genomic sequence of the bacterium allowed us to apply proteomic approaches to identify proteins that may be mediating the hemin acquisition process. As hemin acquisition mechanisms have been shown to be induced in iron-depleted conditions, we applied proteomic approaches to detect those proteins whose expressions were affected by iron. We analyzed 40 protein spots and identified 19 such proteins. Interestingly, two proteins drastically upregulated in iron-depleted conditions, PIN0009 and PINA0611, are homologs of hemin uptake receptors in other bacteria. PIN0009 is predicted to be an outer membrane lipoprotein. It is encoded by a gene that is the first of a seven-gene genomic locus encoding proteins of a novel hemin acquisition system. The second protein, PINA0611, is a homolog of numerous TonB-dependent outer membrane receptors including outer membrane iron uptake receptors of various Gram-negative bacteria. There was also another protein, regulated by iron, that was previously demonstrated to bind hemoglobin in P. intermedia. Finally, we identified a thioredoxin-like protein that has a novel outer membrane location.