Proteomic study of Rhodotorula mucilaginosa RCL-11 revealed differential proteins expression under copper stress

IRAZUSTA VERÓNICA; AMOROSO M.J.; CASTELLANOS DE FIGUEROA, LUCÍA INÉS

Puerto Madryn, Chubut, Argentina

Congreso; 46th Reunión Anual Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular; 2010

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular

Organisms subjected to metal exposures in their natural environments generally have had develop resistance mechanisms. Rhodotorula mucilaginosa RCL-11, yeast isolated from a copper filter plant at the province of Tucumán, Argentina, has the ability of supporting high amounts of copper metal by a slow down in its growth rate(1). In order to understand the mechanism involved in RCL-11 resistance to copper it was conducted a proteomic approach(2). Results of atomic absorption spectroscopy showed that copper concentration in the medium decreased from 0.5 to 0.2mM 48 h later inoculation occurred. Analyzing by mono-dimensional gel electrophoresis the crude cells extracts, it was observed differential bands expressions between cells with or without copper. Further, with the aim of studying these differences, two-dimensional electrophoresis analyses was carried out. Gels were silver-stained, scanned and analyzed with Image Master Program. 2-D analysis of RCL-11 revealed that 48 h copper exposure produced an over-expression of 20 proteins; some of them increased their expression according to the time of copper exposure (16, 24 and 48 h). The results obtained in the present work show that when exposing R. mucilaginosa RCL-11 to 0.5mM copper concentration, it is produced a differential protein expressions probably involved in cell resistance mechanisms.