Porin expression in clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae: a comparison of SDS-PAGE and MALDI-TOF/MS and limitations of whole genome sequencing analysis.

Background: The permeability of the outer membrane barrier modulates the susceptibility of microorganisms to antimicrobial agents. Loss or structural alterations of porins contribute to decreased antibiotic concentration of multiple antimicrobial agents. Precise definition of porin profiles is of critical importance to understand the role of porins in antimicrobial resistance. The objectives of this study are to compare the expression patterns of major outer membrane proteins (OMP) of clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae obtained with Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-Of-Flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF/MS), with those obtained with sodium-dodecyl-sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), and to correlate porin expression patterns with the sequences of porins genes defined with whole genome sequencing (WGS).

Methods: The OMP profiles of 26 clinical isolates of K. pneumoniae and of strain ATCC 13883 (wild-type) and ATCC 700603 (producing SHV-18) have been determined using both SDS-PAGE and MALDI-TOF/MS. SDS-PAGE was performed using both homemade and commercial gels, and protein bands were identified by liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. A rapid extraction method was used to analyse OMPs by MALDI-TOF/MS. The sequences of porin genes were obtained by WGS and mutations were defined by BLAST.

Results: Same results were obtained for all strains either using SDS-PAGE or MALDI-TOF/MS. SDS-PAGE showed protein bands of ~ 35, ~36, and ~ 37 kDa, identified as OmpA, OmpK36 and OmpK35, respectively. By MALDI-TOF/MS, peaks at ~ 35,700 (OmpA), ~ 37,000 (OmpK35), and ~ 38,000 (OmpK36) m/z were detected. ompK35 was intact in nine wild-type isolates and was truncated in 13 isolates, but OmpK35 was not observed in 3 isolates without mutations in ompK35. One point mutation was detected in another isolate and multiple mutations were detected in the remaining isolate. ompK36 was truncated in two isolates lacking this protein and presented one point mutation (n = 1) or multiple mutations in the remaining isolates.

Conclusion: MALDI-TOF/MS was reliable for porin detection, but because of the complex regulation of porin genes, WGS cannot always anticipate protein expression, as observed with SDS-PAGE and MALDI-TOF/MS.