BERKELEY, Calif., May 6 (UPI) -- California scientists said they have identified the full complement of proteins produced by five bacteria that reside in a polluted, inhospitable area.
The researchers sequenced the genomes of the bacteria last year and now have gone one step further, determining the proteins they produce -- otherwise known as their proteomes, the University of California at Berkeley team reported in Science Express, an online publication of Science.
The bacteria species reside at the Richmond Mine in Iron Mountain, Calif., a hot, acidic Superfund site with a pH so low it is like swimming in sulfuric acid, one researcher said.
The scientists said the findings will help them understand how bacteria survive at that site and may help them better understand other microbial systems.
Of the 2,033 proteins detected, many were unique and do not resemble any known proteins. The function of some appears to be to help other proteins retain their correct structure -- a necessity for living in the inhospitable acidic surroundings.
