Proteome database of Listeria monocytogenes

Listeria monocytogenes is a human pathogen, but this is not the only reason why it is attracting medical attention. Of more intrigue is the ability of the single celled bacterium to adopt an intracellular lifestyle within mammalian cells and remain successful in cell replication and transmission to other cells of the body. This thus set forth a flurry of research utilizing contemporary cell biological and genetics techniques to decipher the molecular mechanisms that underpin the ability of L. monocytogenes to evade immune detection as well as gaining entry to host cells. Although some understanding of the mechanisms underlying pathogenesis has been elucidated, there remain many outstanding questions awaiting scientific investigation and illumination. This study sought to provide fundamental information that could enable a genetics-based strategy seeking to unveil the molecular mysteries that guide L. monocytogenes to maintaining a successful intracellular lifestyle and exerting pathogenic pressure on the host cell. Specifically, an in-house MATLAB software was used in parsing the UniProt proteome file of L. monocytogenes, which yields a database of protein names, amino acid sequence, number of residues, molecular weight and nucleotide sequence that could collectively inform the metabolic, signalling and regulatory mechanisms native to this human pathogen. More importantly, fundamental insights could be gleaned when protein names and pathways could be used to decide the molecular targets that should be deleted in generating mutants useful for both cell-line and animal model-based interrogation of pathogenesis mechanisms of this species. Overall, modern genetics and biomedical research requires support from omics technologies in generating a global map of molecular effectors whose selective inactivation could help unentangle complex relationships between different disease pathways.