Proteomic Insights into the Cellulose Degradation Systems of Cytophaga hutchinsonii and Sporocytophaga myxococcoides

Conference poster, 2018

Cytophaga hutchinsonii and Sporocytophaga myxococcoides are both Gram-negative, aerobic, mesophilic, cellulose degrading bacterium belonging to the phylum Bacteroidetes.  Despite both of these organisms being isolated for almost a century, they remain poorly studied with the proteins responsible for cellulose degradation remaining unknown.  Both organisms utilize cell associated machinery in order to degrade crystalline cellulose but do not contain any expected scaffoldin or dockerin proteins of the well-known complexed cellulosome system.  Therefore, we have employed proteomic analysis in order to identify the abundant proteins present during growth on crystalline cellulose and assess their putative roles in cellulose hydrolysis.  Further, we have been able to infer the localization of these proteins based on their abundance in specific cellular fractions.  Taken together, the abundance and localization of proteins putatively involved in cellulose degradation led into important insights into the cellulose degradation mechanisms in both C. hutchinsonii and S. myxococcoides.