Using chemical derivatization and mass spectrometric analysis to characterize the post-translationally modified Staphylococcus aureus surface protein G

The Staphylococcus aureus surface protein G (SasG) is an important mediator of biofilm formation in virulent S. aureus strains. A detailed analysis of its primary sequence has not been reported to date. SasG is highly abundant in the cell wall of the vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus strain HIP5827, and was purified and subjected to sequence analysis by MS. Data from MALDI-TOF and LC-MS/MS experiments confirmed the predicted N-terminal signal peptide cleavage site at residue A₅₁ and the C-terminal cell wall anchor site at residue T₁₀₈₆. The protein was also derivatized with N-succinimidyloxycarbonyl-methyl-tris(2,4,6-trimethoxyphenyl) phosphonium bromide (TMPP-Ac-OSu) to assess the presence of additional N-terminal sites of mature SasG. TMPP-derivatized SasG peptides featured m/z peaks with a 572 Da mass increase over the equivalent underivatized peptides. Multiple N-terminal peptides, all of which were observed in the 150 amino acid segment following the signal peptide cleavage at the residue A₅₁, were characterized from MS and MS/MS data, suggesting a series of successive N-terminal truncations of SasG. A strategy combining TMPP derivatization, multiple enzyme digestions to generate overlapping peptides and detailed MS analysis will be useful to determine and understand functional implications of PTMs in bacterial cell wall-anchored proteins, which are frequently involved in the modulation of virulence-associated bacterial surface properties.