<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//NLM//DTD Journal Publishing DTD v2.3 20070202//EN" "journalpublishing.dtd">
<article xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" article-type="research-article">
<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">Front. Chem.</journal-id>
<journal-title>Frontiers in Chemistry</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="pubmed">Front. Chem.</abbrev-journal-title>
<issn pub-type="epub">2296-2646</issn>
<publisher>
<publisher-name>Frontiers Media S.A.</publisher-name>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.3389/fchem.2017.00127</article-id>
<article-categories>
<subj-group subj-group-type="heading">
<subject>Chemistry</subject>
<subj-group>
<subject>Original Research</subject>
</subj-group>
</subj-group>
</article-categories>
<title-group>
<article-title>Identification of Gold Sensing Peptide by Integrative Proteomics and a Bacterial Two-Component System</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group>
<contrib contrib-type="author" corresp="yes">
<name><surname>Ng</surname> <given-names>I-Son</given-names></name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1"><sup>1</sup></xref>
<xref ref-type="author-notes" rid="fn001"><sup>&#x0002A;</sup></xref>
<uri xlink:href="http://loop.frontiersin.org/people/234425/overview"/>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name><surname>Yu</surname> <given-names>You-Jin</given-names></name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1"><sup>1</sup></xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name><surname>Yi</surname> <given-names>Ying-Chen</given-names></name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1"><sup>1</sup></xref>
<uri xlink:href="http://loop.frontiersin.org/people/507531/overview"/>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name><surname>Tan</surname> <given-names>Shih-I</given-names></name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1"><sup>1</sup></xref>
<uri xlink:href="http://loop.frontiersin.org/people/497721/overview"/>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name><surname>Huang</surname> <given-names>Bo-Chuan</given-names></name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1"><sup>1</sup></xref>
<uri xlink:href="http://loop.frontiersin.org/people/497713/overview"/>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name><surname>Han</surname> <given-names>Yin-Lung</given-names></name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2"><sup>2</sup></xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group>
<aff id="aff1"><sup>1</sup><institution>Department of Chemical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University</institution>, <addr-line>Tainan</addr-line>, <country>Taiwan</country></aff>
<aff id="aff2"><sup>2</sup><institution>Green Energy and Environment Research Laboratories, Natural Resources, Technology Division, Industrial Technology Research Institute</institution>, <addr-line>Hsinchu</addr-line>, <country>Taiwan</country></aff>
<author-notes>
<fn fn-type="edited-by"><p>Edited by: Ya Tang Yang, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan</p></fn>
<fn fn-type="edited-by"><p>Reviewed by: Xiao-Jun Ji, Nanjing Tech University, China; Chih-Ching Huang, National Taiwan Ocean University, Taiwan</p></fn>
<fn fn-type="corresp" id="fn001"><p>&#x0002A;Correspondence: I-Son Ng <email>yswu&#x00040;mail.ncku.edu.tw</email></p></fn>
<fn fn-type="other" id="fn002"><p>This article was submitted to Analytical Chemistry, a section of the journal Frontiers in Chemistry</p></fn></author-notes>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>22</day>
<month>12</month>
<year>2017</year>
</pub-date>
<pub-date pub-type="collection">
<year>2017</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>5</volume>
<elocation-id>127</elocation-id>
<history>
<date date-type="received">
<day>09</day>
<month>10</month>
<year>2017</year>
</date>
<date date-type="accepted">
<day>15</day>
<month>12</month>
<year>2017</year>
</date>
</history>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright &#x000A9; 2017 Ng, Yu, Yi, Tan, Huang and Han.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2017</copyright-year>
<copyright-holder>Ng, Yu, Yi, Tan, Huang and Han</copyright-holder>
<license xlink:href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"><p>This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.</p></license>
</permissions>
<abstract><p>The proteomics strategy was utilized to analyze and identify the gold adsorption proteins from <italic>Tepidimonas fonticaldi</italic> AT-A2, due to its outstanding performance in gold-binding and recovery. The results showed that three small proteins, including histidine biosynthesis protein (HisIE), iron donor protein (CyaY) and hypothetical protein_65aa, have a higher ability to adsorb gold ions because of the negatively charged domains or metal binding sites. On the other hand, the <italic>Salmonella</italic> PmrA/PmrB two-component system first replaces the iron (III)-binding motif using the peptide sequence from hypothetical protein_65aa, and this is then used to reveal the sensing and responsiveness to gold metal ions, which is totally different from the performance of traditional gold binding peptide (GBP) on the crystals on the surface of gold (111). We have successfully demonstrated an integrative proteomics and bacterial two-component system to explore the novel GBP. Finally, the heterologous over-expression of GBP by <italic>E. coli</italic> and the equilibrium of binding capacity for Au(III) have been conducted.</p></abstract>
<kwd-group>
<kwd>gold sensing peptide</kwd>
<kwd><italic>Tepidimonas fonticaldi</italic></kwd>
<kwd>proteomics</kwd>
<kwd>two-component system</kwd>
<kwd>PmrAB</kwd>
</kwd-group>
<contract-num rid="cn001">MOST 105-2221-E-006-225-MY3</contract-num>
<contract-num rid="cn001">MOST 105-2621-M-006-012-MY3</contract-num>
<contract-sponsor id="cn001">Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan<named-content content-type="fundref-id">10.13039/501100004663</named-content></contract-sponsor>
<counts>
<fig-count count="5"/>
<table-count count="4"/>
<equation-count count="2"/>
<ref-count count="21"/>
<page-count count="7"/>
<word-count count="4198"/>
</counts>
</article-meta>
</front>
<body>
<sec sec-type="intro" id="s1">
<title>Introduction</title>
<p>The chemical and physical techniques used in the recovery of precious metals (i.e., gold, platinum, silver, and copper) always require energy, as well as abundant chemical inputs or high-cost facilities, while also producing secondary wastes. Compared with chemical and physical approaches, bio-processes such as bio-adsorption, biodegradation, and bioremediation, based on the different kinds of microorganisms, can reduce both energy consumption and pollution, thus offering an eco-friendly, sustainable and multidisciplinary solution to this problem (Klaus-Joerger et al., <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B11">2001</xref>; Deplanche and Macaskie, <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B8">2008</xref>). In previous studies, a new strain <italic>Tepidimonas fonticaldi</italic> sp. nov. AT-A2 isolated from hot spring water (Chen et al., <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B6">2013</xref>), showed outstanding performance in gold adsorption, with significant specificity (Han et al., <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B9">2017</xref>).</p>
<p>Marc Wilkins established proteomics technology, which has been widely used since 1995 (Wilkins et al., <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B19">1995</xref>), becoming a powerful tool due to its comprehensive analysis of the identified proteins (Ling et al., <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B13">2015</xref>), modifications of proteins (Mann and Jensen, <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B14">2003</xref>), and even analysis of the metabolic fluxes occurring within cells (Ye et al., <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B21">2014</xref>; Ng et al., <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B15">2016</xref>). On the other hand, proteomics approach can be used to clarify and explore the metal-tolerant protein under different stress in plant (Chen et al., <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B4">2015</xref>). It is thus of interest to identify gold adsorption proteins using proteomics.</p>
<p>Prokaryote microorganisms usually respond to external stress by using a two-component regulatory system when the environment changes. In more detail, self-phosphorylation occurs when histidine protein kinase (HK), which is located on the cell membrane, detects a stimulus in the environment, and then a responsive regulator protein (RR) is activated after the phosphate group transfer HK to RR (Stock et al., <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B18">2000</xref>). A previous study found that the <italic>Salmonella enterica</italic> genus has a PmrA/PmrB two-component system to resist cytoplasmic trivalent iron ions or polymyxin B (Chen and Groisman, <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B5">2013</xref>). PmrB, as a transmembrane protein, has two pairs of specific amino acid sequences &#x0201C;EXXE&#x0201D; which can act as a sensor on the cell surface because self-phosphorylation occurs when sensing foreign ferric ions, and this then transfers the phosphate group to PmrA sequentially (W&#x000F6;sten et al., <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B20">2000</xref>). PmrA is active after phosphorylation and recognizes a promoter located in front of the PmrC sequence to trigger the downstream signaling gene. The cell can thus grow normally due to this regulation or inhibition of the relevant genes and specific proteins, and so reach a resistant response (Chen and Groisman, <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B5">2013</xref>).</p>
<p>The successful replacement of iron(III)-binding motif to sense Lanthanide ions occurred in a metal response system constructed by a PmrA/PmrB two-component protein through the signal of green fluorescent protein (GFP) have been successfully demonstrated by He&#x00027;s group (Liang et al., <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B12">2013</xref>). However, the GFP signal is not sensitive as the super-fold GFP (sfGFP). In this study, we aim to analyse and identify the gold adsorption proteins from <italic>T. fonticaldi</italic> sp. nov. AT-A2, which has outstanding gold adsorption capability, by integrative proteomics and a bacterial two-component system with a higher fluorescence signal.</p>
</sec>
<sec sec-type="materials and methods" id="s2">
<title>Materials and methods</title>
<sec>
<title>Separation of Au binding protein/peptide by ultra-filtration</title>
<p>We utilize 30 kDa, 3 kDa ultrafilter and His-trap affinity chromatography to separate the protein mixture. We then analyze the gold adsorption ability using SDS-PAGE electrophoresis, and identify the predicted proteins with Q-TOF-MS. We measure the metal concentration using ICP-OES (HORIBA ULTIMA 2000, Japan) and detect the fluorescence intensity with a fluorescence spectrophotometer (Molecular Devices SpectraMax M2, USA). The excitation and emission wavelengths for detection of the green fluorescence intensity were set at 485 nm and 510 nm, respectively.</p>
</sec>
<sec>
<title>Metal adsorption experiments and ICP-OES analysis</title>
<p>The 0.32 mL of fresh microbial cells was mixed with 1.28 mL Au<sup>3&#x0002B;</sup> metal ions solution in a 2-mL tube, to obtain final concentrations of metal ions at 1 ppm to 80 ppm and a biomass as 0.25 g/L. The suspension was shaken at 70 rpm for 30 min at room temperature, and then centrifuged at 12,000 &#x000D7; g for 5 min to separate the cells and supernatant. The supernatants were filtered using a 0.22 &#x003BC;m membrane followed by ICP-OES (HORIBA ULTIMA 2000, Japan) analysis to determine the un-adsorbed metal concentration.</p>
</sec>
<sec>
<title>Proteomics analysis of gold adsorption proteins</title>
<p>The proteins after ultra-filtration by 30 kDa cut-off were subjected to electrophoresis for further separation followed by MALDI-TOF-TOF analysis using an ABI QSTAR Pulsar i-System (Applied Biosystems, USA). Raw spectral data were further processed using the Data Explorer 4.6 software (Applied Biosystems, USA). The peak list files were used to query the NCBI database using the Mascot program.</p>
</sec>
<sec>
<title>Construction of the two-component system</title>
<p>The strains, plasmids and primers used in this study are shown in Table <xref ref-type="table" rid="T1">1</xref>. <italic>BasS</italic> gene in the <italic>E. coli</italic> MG1655 chromosome should be knock-out to obtain the MG1655&#x00394;BasS::Kan for the two-component sensing system. The vector pKD46, primers of BasS-HR-L-Kan and Kan-R-HR-BasS were used for gene knock-out of BasS in relation to the procedure of lambda-red inactivation of chromosomal genes in <italic>E. coli</italic> (Datsenko and Wanner, <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B7">2000</xref>). Then, the pMD19T-P<sub>BAD</sub>-BasRS and pSB1C3-BSpmrC(S)-sfGFP were constructed in DH5&#x003B1;. First, the genome DNA of E. coli MG1655 was extracted and used for amplifying BasRS by primers of BasR/S-<italic>Kpn</italic>I-F and BasR/S-<italic>Sal</italic>I-R. The plasmid backbone, pMD19T-P<sub>BAD</sub> was amplified from our lab stock, pMD19T-P<sub>BAD</sub>-lysis, by primers of pBAD-<italic>Sal</italic>I-F and pBAD-<italic>Kpn</italic>I-R. The vector and insert gene were digested with <italic>Sal</italic>I/<italic>Kpn</italic>I. The same procedure and primers of BSpmrC-<italic>Eco</italic>RI-F and BSpmrC-<italic>Bam</italic>HI-R were used for construction of pSB1C3-BSpmrC(S)-sfGFP, for which the vector came from pSB1C3-sfGFP and the insert [i.e., BSpmrC(S)] was synthesized using IDT integrated DNA technology (USA). The primers of Au-F and Au-R were used to replace the original sequence of the Fe binding site in pMD19T-P<sub>BAD</sub>-BasRS and thus pMD19T-P<sub>BAD</sub>-BasRS-65aa was obtained, while the primers of AraC-Amp-F and Amp-R were applied to the insert araC from pKD46, and this was then integrated into pMD19T-P<sub>BAD</sub>-BasRS to obtain pBAD-BasRS-65aa. All the positive constructions in Table <xref ref-type="supplementary-material" rid="SM1">S1</xref> were further confirmed after colony PCR of the target gene, plasmid digestion and sequencing.</p>
<table-wrap position="float" id="T1">
<label>Table 1</label>
<caption><p>Strains, plasmids, and primers used in this study.</p></caption>
<table frame="hsides" rules="groups">
<thead><tr>
<th valign="top" align="left"><bold>Material</bold></th>
<th valign="top" align="left"><bold>Genotype or description</bold></th>
<th valign="top" align="left"><bold>Sources</bold></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left" colspan="3" style="background-color:#bdbec1"><bold>STRAINS</bold></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left"><italic>Tepidimonas fonticaldi</italic> sp. nov. AT-A2</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">Wide type</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">ITRI</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left"><italic>E. coli</italic> DH5&#x003B1;</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">4,507,030 bp, F<sup>&#x02212;</sup><italic>endA1 glnV44 thi-1 recA1 relA1 gyrA96 deoR nupG purB20</italic> &#x003C6;80d<italic>lacZ</italic>&#x00394;M15 &#x00394;(<italic>lacZYA-argF</italic>)U169, hsdR17(<italic>r<sub><italic>K</italic></sub></italic><sup>&#x02212;</sup><italic>m<sub><italic>K</italic></sub></italic><sup>&#x0002B;</sup>), &#x003BB;<sup>&#x02212;</sup></td>
<td valign="top" align="left">Lab stock</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left"><italic>E. coli</italic> MG1655</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">4,646,332 bp, F<sup>&#x02212;</sup>&#x003BB;<sup>&#x02212;</sup> rph-1 INV(rrnD, rrnE)</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">Lab stock</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left"><italic>E. coli</italic> BL21(DE3)</td>
<td valign="top" align="left"><italic>E. coli</italic> str. B F<sup>&#x02212;</sup><italic>ompT gal dcm lon hsdS<sub><italic>B</italic></sub></italic>(<italic>r<sub><italic>B</italic></sub></italic><sup>&#x02212;</sup><italic>m<sub><italic>B</italic></sub></italic><sup>&#x02212;</sup>) &#x003BB;(DE3 [<italic>lacI lacUV5-T7p07 ind1 sam7 nin5</italic>]) [m<italic>alB</italic><sup>&#x0002B;</sup>]<sub>K&#x02212;12</sub>(&#x003BB;<sup>S</sup>)</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">Lab stock</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left" colspan="3" style="background-color:#bdbec1"><bold>PLASMIDS</bold></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">pKD46</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">6,329 bp, Amp<sup>R</sup> P<sub>araB</sub> promoter, repA101ts, lambda Red, tL3, araC</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">Prof. Yun-Peng Chao</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">pMD19T-P<sub>BAD</sub>-lysis</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">3,178, Amp<sup>R</sup>, P<sub>BAD</sub> promoter</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">Lab stock</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">pSB1C3-sfGFP</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">3,099 bp, Cm<sup>R</sup>, pUC ori, P<sub>lacI</sub> promoter, B0034</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">Lab stock</td>
</tr>
<tr style="border-bottom: thin solid #000000;">
<td valign="top" align="left">pET28a(&#x0002B;)</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">5,369 bp, Kan<sup>R</sup> T7 <italic>lac</italic> promoter, His&#x02219;Tag and T7&#x02219;Tag</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">Lab stock</td>
</tr> <tr style="border-bottom: thin solid #000000;">
<td valign="top" align="left"><bold>Primers</bold></td>
<td valign="top" align="left"><bold>Sequences (5&#x02032; &#x02192; 3&#x02032;)</bold></td>
<td/>
</tr> <tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">BasS-HR-L-Kan</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">TAACTACCGT GTTCAGCGTG CTGGTGGTCA GCAGCTTTCTTTAGAAAAAC TCATCGAGCA</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">This study</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">Kan-R-HR-BasS</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">CTATATGCTG GTCGCGAATG AGGAAAACTA ATTGAATCTGTTTCTACGGG GTCTGACGCT</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">This study</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">BasR/S-<italic>Kpn</italic>I-F</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">CC<underline>GGTACC</underline>ATGAAAATTCTGATTGTTGAAGACGAT</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">This study</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">BasR/S-<italic>Sal</italic>I-R</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">TA<underline>GTCGAC</underline>TTATATCTGGTTTGCCACGTACTGATC</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">This study</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">pBAD-<italic>Sal</italic>I-F</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">GC<underline>GTCGAC</underline>TACTAGAGCCAGGCATCAAATAAAAC</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">This study</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">pBAD-<italic>Kpn</italic>I-R</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">GC<underline>GGTACC</underline>CTCTAGTATTTCTCCTCTTTCTCTAG</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">This study</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">BSpmrC-<italic>Eco</italic>RI-F</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">CC<underline>GAATTC</underline>TTACACTGGTGCCATATCTTTACACCT</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">This study</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">BSpmrC-<italic>Cla</italic>I-R</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">AT<underline>ATCGAT</underline>CACGGTGTTTCCATCGAACAAAGTGCG</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">This study</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">BSpmrC-<italic>Bam</italic>HI-R</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">GT<underline>GGATCC</underline>GTTGATGCGTCCATCGATTCG</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">This study</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">Au-F</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">TGAAAGCGATTACCCAGGCGATTCGCGCGCTGGA TCCGCAGGCGGTCGCCAGCCTGATTG</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">Insert GBP from 65aa</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">Au-R</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">CGCAATGGCCGCAGCTCATGCCATCCACGGTAAA CACATGCTGTAGCCAGAAGACGCTGA</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">Insert GBP from 65aa</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">AraC-Amp-F</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">GTCCACATTGATTATTTGCACGGCGAATTCGC</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">Amplify araC from pKD46</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">Amp-R</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">TGCCTCACTGATTAAGCATTGGTAA</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">Amplify araC from pKD46</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">65aa-<italic>Eco</italic>RI-F</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">CA<underline>GAATTC</underline>ATGCAGCATGTGTTTACCGTG</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">Amplify 65aa</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">65aa-<italic>Xho</italic>I-R</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">TA<underline>CTCGAG</underline>ATCGCGCACGGTATAGCCTTC</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">Amplify 65aa</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table-wrap-foot>
<p><italic>Kan<sup>R</sup>, Kanamycin-resistance; Amp<sup>R</sup>, Ampicillin-resistance. EcoRI (GAATTC), XhoI (CTCGAG), NcoI (CCATGG), NdeI (CATATG), EcoRV (GATATC), KpnI (GGTACC), SalI (GTCGAC), ClaI (ATCGAT), BamHI (GGATCC) restriction sites are underlined</italic>.</p>
</table-wrap-foot>
</table-wrap>
</sec>
<sec>
<title>Measurement of the fluorescence intensity</title>
<p>The precipitated cells were resuspended in deionized water to a final density, with as 0.5 g/L and 200 &#x003BC;L was added into a 96-well plate. The fluorescence intensity was determined using a fluorescence spectrophotometer (Molecular Devices SpectraMax M2, USA). The excitation and emission wavelengths for detection of the green fluorescence intensity were set at 485 and 510 nm, respectively. All experiments were conducted three times.</p>
</sec>
<sec>
<title>Cloning, recombinant expression, and purification of 65aa in <italic>E. coli</italic></title>
<p>The DNA and amino acid sequence of 65aa peptide are shown in Table <xref ref-type="supplementary-material" rid="SM1">S2</xref>. The target gene is obtained via Integrated DNA Technologis Company (IDT) in USA. The 65aa peptide was amplified by primers of 65aa-<italic>Eco</italic>RI-F and 65aa-<italic>Xho</italic>I-R and inserted between the T7 promoter and terminator of expression vector pET28a(&#x0002B;) and introduced into <italic>E. coli</italic> BL21(DE3). Recombinant colonies grown on LB-Kan plates were checked by colony PCR and double digestion by restriction enzymes <italic>Eco</italic>RI and <italic>Xho</italic>I. The cells harboring of pET28a-65aa plasmid were cultured in 100 ml of LB medium supplemented with 50 &#x003BC;g/ml kanamycin on a rotary shaker (200 rpm) at 37&#x000B0;C. When the cell density reached to OD<sub>600</sub> at 0.6, it was induced by final concentration of 0.1 mM IPTG and further cultured for 8 h. The cells were washed three times and collected by centrifugation at 10,000 &#x000D7; g 4&#x000B0;C for 10 min. The cell suspension were adjusted to OD<sub>600</sub> &#x0003D; 10 and then disrupted by a homogenizer at 30 kpsi (Constant system, OneShot Model, UK). The supernatant was centrifugal once again at 15,000 &#x000D7; g 4&#x000B0;C for 15 min and filtrated through a 0.22 &#x003BC;m membrane. A His-Trap affinity chromatography column was applied in GE Healthcare &#x000C4;KTA FPLC chromatography system. Fractions containing recombinant 65aa were eluted with 500 mM imidazole dissolving in sodium phosphate buffer (10 mM, pH 7.4). Finally, excess imidazole in the purified 65aa was removed by ultrafiltration with 3 kDa cut-off.</p>
</sec>
<sec>
<title>Protein expression determined by SDS-PAGE</title>
<p>The gel was prepared with 0.1% SDS in 10% separating gel and 4% stacking gel. Tris-glycine buffer (pH 8.3) containing 0.1% SDS was used as the electrode buffer. The samples of 10 &#x003BC;l with &#x0007E;0.1 mg protein were treated with the protein buffer and heated at 95&#x000B0;C for 5 min prior to apply in the gel. The proteins were visualized by staining with Coomassie blue R-250 and scanned on the Image scanner.</p>
</sec>
<sec>
<title>Binding capacity of 65aa</title>
<p>The aqueous Au (III) solution varied from 0 to 1,200 mg/L and added into 50 mg/L protein suspension (i.e., purified 65aa) at a volume ratio of 1:1 and to get the final Au(III) at 0 to 600 mg/L and protein at 25 mg/L, respectively. The experiments of binding capacity were carried out in 15 ml tubes and incubated at room temperature for 1 h with shaker 70 rpm. The residual concentration of Au (III) was measured as the same procedure in aforementioned ICP-OES analysis. The binding affinity (<italic>K</italic><sub><italic>d</italic></sub>) and <italic>B</italic><sub><italic>max</italic></sub> are obtained by fitting the data to the model of specific binding with Hill slope as following equation:</p>
<disp-formula id="E1"><mml:math id="M1"><mml:mtable columnalign="left"><mml:mtr><mml:mtd><mml:mi>B</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mi>B</mml:mi><mml:mi>m</mml:mi><mml:mi>a</mml:mi><mml:mi>x</mml:mi><mml:mfrac><mml:mrow><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>x</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mi>n</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:msup></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:msubsup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>K</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mi>d</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mi>n</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:msubsup><mml:mo>&#x0002B;</mml:mo><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>x</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mi>n</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:msup></mml:mrow></mml:mfrac></mml:mtd></mml:mtr></mml:mtable></mml:math></disp-formula>
<p>where <italic>B</italic><sub><italic>max</italic></sub> is the maximum binding ratio, <italic>K</italic><sub><italic>d</italic></sub> is the binding affinity and <italic>n</italic> is the equilibrium constant.</p>
</sec>
</sec>
<sec id="s3">
<title>Results and discussion</title>
<p>The gold adsorption proteins from strain AT-A2 were analyzed and identified using the proteomics strategy. Ultrafiltration and His-trap affinity chromatography were used to separate the protein mixture, and to detect the gold adsorption ability. As shown in Table <xref ref-type="table" rid="T2">2</xref>, the 3&#x02013;30 kDa fractions showed the highest ratio of gold adsorption, i.e., 1.75 mg Au on per mg protein, while the adsorption rate of the initial mixed proteins in supernatant and the proteins with a molecular weight larger than 30 kDa were 0.82 and 0.36, respectively. The protein fractions from 3 to 30 kDa were separated by SDS-PAGE electrophoresis, and then subjected to tandem MS/MS analysis. The results of Mascot protein identifications for three protein fractions [i.e., histidine biosynthesis protein (HisIE), iron donor protein (CyaY) and hypothetical protein_65aa (65aa)] in AT-A2 are summarized in Table <xref ref-type="table" rid="T3">3</xref>. According to the predicted structure of proteins by SWISS-MODEL (<ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://swissmodel.expasy.org/">https://swissmodel.expasy.org/</ext-link>), it was found that HisIE included domain with positive charge ion, while CyaY owned an alpha helix would stabilize the binding energy of metal, and hypothetical protein_65aa was supposed to be metal binding proteins. In summary, the gold binding ability was attributed to the negatively charged domain, alpha helix, or specific metal binding motif, such as sequence of MSCXXC. Compared to the gold binding peptide (GBP) (mhgktqatsgtiqs) discovered by Brown (Brown, <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B1">1997</xref>), which can detect gold-binding behavior on the structure of Au(111) (Brown et al., <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B2">2000</xref>), this novel and specific peptide from AT-A2 is used for detection of gold ions in the solution.</p>
<table-wrap position="float" id="T2">
<label>Table 2</label>
<caption><p>Au adsorption ratio on proteins from different portions of <italic>Tepidimonas fonticaldi</italic> sp. nov. AT-A2.</p></caption>
<table frame="hsides" rules="groups">
<thead><tr>
<th valign="top" align="left"><bold>Sample</bold></th>
<th valign="top" align="center"><bold>Protein conc. (ppm)</bold></th>
<th valign="top" align="center"><bold>Au<sup>&#x0002A;</sup> adsorption (ppm)</bold></th>
<th valign="top" align="center"><bold>Adsorption ratio of Au/protein</bold></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">Supernatant</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">7.6</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">6.2</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">0.82</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">&#x0003E;30 kDa</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">25.0</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">8.9</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">0.36</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">3&#x02013;30 kDa</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">23.6</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">41.2</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">1.75</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table-wrap-foot>
<p><italic>The original Au<sup>&#x0002A;</sup> is 51.7 ppm</italic>.</p>
</table-wrap-foot>
</table-wrap>
<table-wrap position="float" id="T3">
<label>Table 3</label>
<caption><p>Mascot protein identifications of fractional proteins &#x0003C;30 KDa in <italic>Tepidimonas fonticaldi</italic> sp. nov. AT-A2.</p></caption>
<table frame="hsides" rules="groups">
<thead><tr>
<th valign="top" align="left"><bold>No</bold>.</th>
<th valign="top" align="left"><bold>Protein name</bold></th>
<th valign="top" align="left"><bold>Accession no</bold>.</th>
<th valign="top" align="center"><bold>Score</bold></th>
<th valign="top" align="center"><bold>Mw (Da)</bold></th>
<th valign="top" align="center"><bold>pI</bold></th>
<th valign="top" align="center"><bold>Peptide match</bold></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">1</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">Histidine biosynthesis protein (HisIE)</td>
<td valign="top" align="left"><ext-link ext-link-type="DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank" xlink:href="WP_043698885">WP_043698885</ext-link></td>
<td valign="top" align="center">253</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">11,217</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">9.98</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">16</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">2</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">Iron donor protein (CyaY)</td>
<td valign="top" align="left"><ext-link ext-link-type="DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank" xlink:href="WP_043703651">WP_043703651</ext-link></td>
<td valign="top" align="center">181</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">12,257</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">5.06</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">19</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">3</td>
<td valign="top" align="left">Hypothetical protein_65aa</td>
<td valign="top" align="left"><ext-link ext-link-type="DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank" xlink:href="WP_058616432">WP_058616432</ext-link></td>
<td valign="top" align="center">28</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">7,299</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">5.16</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">5</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</table-wrap>
<p>As shown in Figure <xref ref-type="fig" rid="F1">1</xref>, the predicted metal binding site in 65aa peptide was analyzed using the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST). The MSCGHC site is located at the tenth to fifteenth amino acids in the sequence of 65aa. Therefore, we attempt to establish a responsive system to detect gold ions based on the PmrA/PmrB two-component system.</p>
<fig id="F1" position="float">
<label>Figure 1</label>
<caption><p>The metal binding site prediction in 65aa peptide by BLAST.</p></caption>
<graphic xlink:href="fchem-05-00127-g0001.tif"/>
</fig>
<p>The iron (III)-binding motif of <italic>Salmonella</italic> PmrA/PmrB two-component system was first replaced by the lanthanide-binding peptide sequence (Liang et al., <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B12">2013</xref>). In the resulting PmrA/PmrB/pmrC-GFP, the sensing intensity of GFP is around 100 a.u. at 100 &#x003BC;M Fe<sup>3&#x0002B;</sup>. We improved the sensitivity by using sfGFP, for which the vector construction included pSB1C3-BSpmrC(S)-sfGFP, pMD19T-P<sub>BAD</sub>-BasRS, pMD19T-pBAD-BasRS-65aa and pBAD-BasRS-65aa (Figure <xref ref-type="supplementary-material" rid="SM1">S1</xref>), with the confirmation shown in Figure <xref ref-type="supplementary-material" rid="SM1">S2</xref>. As a result, the sensitivity with regard to iron detection is 730 a.u. for 1 &#x003BC;M Fe<sup>3&#x0002B;</sup> and 750 a.u. for 2 &#x003BC;M Fe<sup>3&#x0002B;</sup> (Figure <xref ref-type="fig" rid="F2">2</xref>). When the amino acids of the iron-binding motif (amino acid 36&#x02013;64) in PmrB is replaced with 36-QHVFTVDGMSCGHCVKAITQAIRALDPQ-64 from 65aa (Figure <xref ref-type="fig" rid="F3">3</xref>), the signals of sfGFP were 622 a.u. for 1 &#x003BC;M Au<sup>3&#x0002B;</sup>and 509 a.u. for 2 &#x003BC;M Au<sup>3&#x0002B;</sup>, respectively. Moreover, the sfGFP intensity increased to 2,705 a.u. for 1 &#x003BC;M Au<sup>3&#x0002B;</sup>and 2,738 a.u. for 2 &#x003BC;M Au<sup>3&#x0002B;</sup> when the <italic>araC</italic> gene was strictly regulated under 10 mM arabinose (Figure <xref ref-type="fig" rid="F2">2</xref>).</p>
<fig id="F2" position="float">
<label>Figure 2</label>
<caption><p>Engineered PmrA/PmrB-Au65/PmrC-sfGFP which sensing iron ion (Fe<sup>3&#x0002B;</sup>) and gold ion (Au<sup>3&#x0002B;</sup>). The sfGFP fluorescence response to different concentration of metal ions and arabinose concentration under araC gene regulation.</p></caption>
<graphic xlink:href="fchem-05-00127-g0002.tif"/>
</fig>
<fig id="F3" position="float">
<label>Figure 3</label>
<caption><p>The two component system works on detection of gold ion by a novel peptide (Au-65) which explored by proteomics approach from <italic>Tepidimonas fonticaldi</italic> AT-A2. Design and construction of gold-responsive system based on PmrA/PmrB has successfully replaced amino acids of iron-binding motif (amino acid 36&#x02013;64) from PmrB with QHVFTVDG<underline>MSCGHC</underline>VKAITQAIRALDPQ. The underlined is metal binding site prediction in 65aa.</p></caption>
<graphic xlink:href="fchem-05-00127-g0003.tif"/>
</fig>
<p>In fact, the metal protein is usually a short metal-binding residue of only about 70&#x02013;80 amino acids, which has a highly homologous conserved metal binding sequence of &#x0201C;MX1CX2X3C&#x0201D; (X stands for any amino acid). X1 is usually an amino acid of H, T, D, or S, while X2 and X3 are the small and hydrophobic or polar uncharged residues, such as A, G, or S (Shoshan and Tshuva, <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B17">2011</xref>). The minor differences in protein binding sites allow significant changes in the binding structure of the entire protein, and thus to sensing a particular metal (Opella et al., <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B16">2002</xref>). On the other hand, it has been reported that cysteine in the &#x0201C;CXXCGC&#x0201D; sequence region for metal-binding sites has a high affinity for nickel ions (Chan Chung et al., <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B3">2008</xref>). X-ray absorption spectroscopy experiments showed that the chemical binding of gold ion on egg shell biofilm was not only a simple electrostatic interaction, but also involved a complex ligand reaction (Ishikawa et al., <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B10">2002</xref>). Therefore, it is not easy to use physical chemistry to define the absorption of protein peptide. As the mechanism of PmrA/PmrB-65aa/pmrC-sfGFP shown in Figure <xref ref-type="fig" rid="F3">3</xref>, we validated a two-component system for the specific gold adsorbed peptide from AT-A2.</p>
<p>The GBP, 65aa, has further cloned to pET28a plasmid (Figure <xref ref-type="supplementary-material" rid="SM1">S3</xref>) and was heterologously expressed in <italic>E. coli</italic>. As shown in Figure <xref ref-type="fig" rid="F4">4A</xref>, the peptide of 65aa has been successfully expressed under IPTG induction and purified. The gold binding ratio is 38 and 58% for the crude extract protein and purified protein, respectively (Figure <xref ref-type="fig" rid="F4">4B</xref>). Further analysis of the binding capacity is shown in Figure <xref ref-type="fig" rid="F5">5</xref>. The equation of the fitting curve is followed by Hill function as below:</p>
<disp-formula id="E2"><mml:math id="M3"><mml:mtable columnalign="left"><mml:mtr><mml:mtd><mml:mi>B</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>4</mml:mn><mml:mo>.</mml:mo><mml:mn>4</mml:mn><mml:mtext>&#x000A0;</mml:mtext><mml:mrow><mml:mo stretchy="true">(</mml:mo><mml:mrow><mml:mfrac><mml:mrow><mml:mi>m</mml:mi><mml:mi>g</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mi>m</mml:mi><mml:mi>g</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:mfrac></mml:mrow><mml:mo stretchy="true">)</mml:mo></mml:mrow><mml:mtext>&#x000A0;</mml:mtext><mml:mo>&#x000D7;</mml:mo><mml:mtext>&#x000A0;</mml:mtext><mml:mfrac><mml:mrow><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>x</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mn>2</mml:mn><mml:mo>.</mml:mo><mml:mn>69</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msup></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mn>77</mml:mn><mml:mo>.</mml:mo><mml:mn>13</mml:mn><mml:mtext>&#x000A0;</mml:mtext><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mo stretchy="true">(</mml:mo><mml:mrow><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mi>m</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mo stretchy="true">)</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mn>2</mml:mn><mml:mo>.</mml:mo><mml:mn>69</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msup><mml:mo>&#x0002B;</mml:mo><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>x</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mn>2</mml:mn><mml:mo>.</mml:mo><mml:mn>69</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msup></mml:mrow></mml:mfrac><mml:mtext>&#x000A0;</mml:mtext><mml:mrow><mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo><mml:mrow><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mtext>R</mml:mtext></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msup><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>0</mml:mn><mml:mo>.</mml:mo><mml:mn>989</mml:mn></mml:mrow><mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:mtd></mml:mtr></mml:mtable></mml:math></disp-formula>
<p>Where <italic>B</italic> is binding ratio of adsorbed Au(III) per purified 65 a.a peptide and <italic>X</italic> is the initial Au(III) concentration. We can find out the maximal binding ratio (i.e., <italic>B</italic><sub><italic>max</italic></sub>) is approximately at 4.4 (mg/mg), binding affinity <italic>K</italic><sub><italic>d</italic></sub> is 77.13 (ppm) and equilibrium constant <italic>n</italic> is 2.69. The results are close to the protein mixtures from the original strain AT-A2 (Han et al., <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B9">2017</xref>). However, this 65aa can be easily expressed in <italic>E. coli</italic> up to 200 mg/L, which the protein concentration is much higher than that from AT-A2 in 15 mg/L.</p>
<fig id="F4" position="float">
<label>Figure 4</label>
<caption><p><bold>(A)</bold> The SDS-PAGE analysis of recombinant 65aa expression in <italic>E. coli</italic>. M means protein marker in molecular weight. The pET28a expression is under IPTG induction which (&#x02013;) no IPTG and (&#x0002B;) with IPTG. <bold>(B)</bold> Gold binding ratio of 65aa with and without His-Trap affinity chromatography.</p></caption>
<graphic xlink:href="fchem-05-00127-g0004.tif"/>
</fig>
<fig id="F5" position="float">
<label>Figure 5</label>
<caption><p>Binding capacity of recombinant 65aa at room temperatures. The adsorption data has shown in dot and model fitting is used by Hill function as <italic>B</italic> &#x0003D; <italic>B</italic><sub><italic>max</italic></sub> <sup>&#x0002A;</sup><italic>X</italic><sup><italic>n</italic></sup><italic>/(</italic><inline-formula><mml:math id="M2"><mml:msubsup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>K</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mi>d</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mi>n</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:msubsup><mml:mo>&#x0002B;</mml:mo></mml:math></inline-formula><italic>X</italic><sup><italic>n</italic></sup>).</p></caption>
<graphic xlink:href="fchem-05-00127-g0005.tif"/>
</fig>
<p>Finally, the selectivity of the GBP 65aa for different metal ions was tested in the printed circuit boards (PCBs) wastewater. As the result in Table <xref ref-type="table" rid="T4">4</xref>, the gold adsorption was 86.8% which is higher than other elements, indicating that 65aa has high selectivity for Au(III) than Ag(I) and Cu(II).</p>
<table-wrap position="float" id="T4">
<label>Table 4</label>
<caption><p>Comparison of gold binding peptide 65aa and AT-A2 in recovery of gold, silver, copper in the printed circuit boards (PCBs) wastewater.</p></caption>
<table frame="hsides" rules="groups">
<thead><tr>
<th valign="top" align="left"><bold>Elements</bold></th>
<th valign="top" align="center" colspan="3" style="border-bottom: thin solid #000000;"><bold>65aa</bold></th>
<th valign="top" align="center" colspan="3" style="border-bottom: thin solid #000000;"><bold>AT-A2<xref ref-type="table-fn" rid="TN1"><sup>&#x0002A;</sup></xref></bold></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th/>
<th valign="top" align="center"><bold>Initial conc. (mg/L)</bold></th>
<th valign="top" align="center"><bold>Residual conc. (mg/L)</bold></th>
<th valign="top" align="center"><bold>Removal efficient (%)</bold></th>
<th valign="top" align="center"><bold>Initial conc. (mg/L)</bold></th>
<th valign="top" align="center"><bold>Residual conc. (mg/L)</bold></th>
<th valign="top" align="center"><bold>Removal efficiency (%)</bold></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">Au<sup>3&#x0002B;</sup></td>
<td valign="top" align="center">45</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">5.94</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">86.8</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">15</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">4.3</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">71.3</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">Ag<sup>&#x0002B;</sup></td>
<td valign="top" align="center">0.72</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">0.70</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">0.03</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">&#x0003C;1</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">ND</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">ND</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">Cu<sup>2&#x0002B;</sup></td>
<td valign="top" align="center">0.41</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">0.41</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">0</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">0.6</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">ND</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">ND</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">K<sup>&#x0002B;</sup></td>
<td valign="top" align="center">142.2</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">123.90</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">12.9</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">309.6</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">302.3</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">2.4</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table-wrap-foot>
<fn id="TN1">
<label>&#x0002A;</label>
<p><italic>The data is adapted from Han et al. (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B9">2017</xref>). ND, not determined</italic>.</p></fn>
</table-wrap-foot>
</table-wrap>
</sec>
<sec sec-type="conclusions" id="s4">
<title>Conclusion</title>
<p>The small proteins or peptides of the thermophilic strain <italic>T. fonticaldi</italic> AT-A2 are more likely to adsorb gold ions. The proteomics approach applied in this work contributed to exploring the gold binding proteins or peptides more effectively. The suspected proteins are in the negatively charged domain, and have alpha helix or a specific metal binding motif, such as MSCXXC. This is the first time that a PmrA/PmrB two-component responsive system has been used to confirm the gold adsorption proteins or peptides as sequence of QHVFTVDG<underline>MSCGHC</underline>VKAITQAIRALDPQ. Recombinant expression of 65aa in <italic>E. coli</italic> showed the binding affinity (<italic>K</italic><sub><italic>d</italic></sub>) and maximum binding ratio (<italic>B</italic><sub><italic>max</italic></sub>) was 77.13 ppm and 4.4 mg-Au(III)/mg-protein, respectively. This integration of proteomics and a bacterial two-component system provides an attractive approach to find novel functional proteins, with few limitations.</p>
</sec>
<sec id="s5">
<title>Author contributions</title>
<p>I-SN: designed the research, did data analysis and wrote the manuscript; Y-JY: performed the proteomics experiment and initiated the two-component system; S-IT, Y-CY, and B-CH: accomplished the two-component system and did data analysis; Y-LH: provided comments and was involved in discussions.</p>
<sec>
<title>Conflict of interest statement</title>
<p>The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.</p>
</sec>
</sec>
</body>
<back>
<ack><p>The authors are grateful for the financial support provided by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST 105-2221-E-006-225-MY3, and MOST 105-2621-M-006-012-MY3) in Taiwan.</p>
</ack>
<sec sec-type="supplementary-material" id="s6">
<title>Supplementary material</title>
<p>The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: <ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fchem.2017.00127/full#supplementary-material">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fchem.2017.00127/full#supplementary-material</ext-link></p>
<supplementary-material xlink:href="DataSheet1.pdf" id="SM1" mimetype="application/pdf" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
</sec>
<ref-list>
<title>References</title>
<ref id="B1">
<citation citation-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Brown</surname> <given-names>S.</given-names></name></person-group> (<year>1997</year>). <article-title>Metal-recognition by repeating polypeptides</article-title>. <source>Nat. Biotechnol.</source> <volume>15</volume>, <fpage>269</fpage>&#x02013;<lpage>272</lpage>. <pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1038/nbt0397-269</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">9062928</pub-id></citation></ref>
<ref id="B2">
<citation citation-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Brown</surname> <given-names>S.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Sarikaya</surname> <given-names>M.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Johnson</surname> <given-names>E.</given-names></name></person-group> (<year>2000</year>). <article-title>A genetic analysis of crystal growth</article-title>. <source>J. Mol. Biol.</source> <volume>299</volume>, <fpage>725</fpage>&#x02013;<lpage>735</lpage>. <pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1006/jmbi.2000.3682</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">10835280</pub-id></citation></ref>
<ref id="B3">
<citation citation-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Chan Chung</surname> <given-names>K. C.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Cao</surname> <given-names>L.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Dias</surname> <given-names>A. V.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Pickering</surname> <given-names>I. J.</given-names></name> <name><surname>George</surname> <given-names>G. N.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Zamble</surname> <given-names>D. B.</given-names></name></person-group> (<year>2008</year>). <article-title>A high-affinity metal-binding peptide from <italic>Escherichia coli</italic> HypB</article-title>. <source>J. Am. Chem. Soc.</source> <volume>130</volume>, <fpage>14056</fpage>&#x02013;<lpage>14057</lpage>. <pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1021/ja8055003</pub-id></citation></ref>
<ref id="B4">
<citation citation-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Chen</surname> <given-names>C.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Song</surname> <given-names>Y.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Zhuang</surname> <given-names>K.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Li</surname> <given-names>L.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Xia</surname> <given-names>Y.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Shen</surname> <given-names>Z.</given-names></name></person-group> (<year>2015</year>). <article-title>Proteomic analysis of copper-binding proteins in excess copper-stressed roots of two rice (<italic>Oryza sativa L</italic>.) varieties with different Cu tolerances</article-title>. <source>PLoS ONE</source> <volume>10</volume>:<fpage>e0125367</fpage>. <pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1371/journal.pone.0125367</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">25919452</pub-id></citation></ref>
<ref id="B5">
<citation citation-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Chen</surname> <given-names>H. D.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Groisman</surname> <given-names>E. A.</given-names></name></person-group> (<year>2013</year>). <article-title>The biology of the PmrA/PmrB two-component system: the major regulator of lipopolysaccharide modifications</article-title>. <source>Annu. Rev. Microbiol.</source> <volume>67</volume>, <fpage>83</fpage>&#x02013;<lpage>112</lpage>. <pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1146/annurev-micro-092412-155751</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">23799815</pub-id></citation></ref>
<ref id="B6">
<citation citation-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Chen</surname> <given-names>W. M.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Huang</surname> <given-names>H. W.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Chang</surname> <given-names>J. S.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Han</surname> <given-names>Y. L.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Guo</surname> <given-names>T. R.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Sheu</surname> <given-names>S. Y.</given-names></name></person-group> (<year>2013</year>). <article-title><italic>Tepidimonas fonticaldi</italic> sp. nov., a slightly thermophilic betaproteobacterium isolated from a hot spring</article-title>. <source>Int. J. Syst. Evol. Microbiol.</source> <volume>63</volume>, <fpage>1810</fpage>&#x02013;<lpage>1816</lpage>. <pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1099/ijs.0.043729-0</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">22984136</pub-id></citation></ref>
<ref id="B7">
<citation citation-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Datsenko</surname> <given-names>K. A.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Wanner</surname> <given-names>B. L.</given-names></name></person-group> (<year>2000</year>). <article-title>One-step inactivation of chromosomal genes in <italic>Escherichia coli</italic> K-12 using PCR products</article-title>. <source>Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A</source>. <volume>97</volume>, <fpage>6640</fpage>&#x02013;<lpage>6645</lpage>. <pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1073/pnas.120163297</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">10829079</pub-id></citation></ref>
<ref id="B8">
<citation citation-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Deplanche</surname> <given-names>K.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Macaskie</surname> <given-names>L. E.</given-names></name></person-group> (<year>2008</year>). <article-title>Biorecovery of gold by <italic>Escherichia coli</italic> and <italic>Desulfovibrio desulfuricans</italic></article-title>. <source>Biotechnol. Bioeng.</source> <volume>99</volume>, <fpage>1055</fpage>&#x02013;<lpage>1064</lpage>. <pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1002/bit.21688</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">17969152</pub-id></citation></ref>
<ref id="B9">
<citation citation-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Han</surname> <given-names>Y. L.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Wu</surname> <given-names>J. H.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Cheng</surname> <given-names>C. L.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Nagarajan</surname> <given-names>D.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Lee</surname> <given-names>C. R.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Li</surname> <given-names>Y. H.</given-names></name> <etal/></person-group>. (<year>2017</year>). <article-title>Recovery of gold from industrial wastewater by extracellular proteins obtained from a thermophilic bacterium <italic>Tepidimonas fonticaldi</italic> AT-A2</article-title>. <source>Bioresour. Technol.</source> <volume>239</volume>, <fpage>160</fpage>&#x02013;<lpage>170</lpage>. <pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1016/j.biortech.2017.05.038</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">28521225</pub-id></citation></ref>
<ref id="B10">
<citation citation-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Ishikawa</surname> <given-names>S. I.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Suyama</surname> <given-names>K.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Arihara</surname> <given-names>K.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Itoh</surname> <given-names>M.</given-names></name></person-group> (<year>2002</year>). <article-title>Uptake and recovery of gold ions from electroplating wastes using eggshell membrane</article-title>. <source>Bioresour. Technol.</source> <volume>81</volume>, <fpage>201</fpage>&#x02013;<lpage>206</lpage>. <pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1016/S0960-8524(01)00134-1</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">11800486</pub-id></citation></ref>
<ref id="B11">
<citation citation-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Klaus-Joerger</surname> <given-names>T.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Joerger</surname> <given-names>R.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Olsson</surname> <given-names>E.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Granqvist</surname> <given-names>C. G.</given-names></name></person-group> (<year>2001</year>). <article-title>Bacteria as workers in the living factory: metal-accumulating bacteria and their potential for materials science</article-title>. <source>Trends Biotechnol.</source> <volume>19</volume>, <fpage>15</fpage>&#x02013;<lpage>20</lpage>. <pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1016/S0167-7799(00)01514-6</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">11146098</pub-id></citation></ref>
<ref id="B12">
<citation citation-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Liang</surname> <given-names>H.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Deng</surname> <given-names>X.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Bosscher</surname> <given-names>M.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Ji</surname> <given-names>Q.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Jensen</surname> <given-names>M. P.</given-names></name> <name><surname>He</surname> <given-names>C.</given-names></name></person-group> (<year>2013</year>). <article-title>Engineering bacterial two-component system PmrA/PmrB to sense lanthanide ions</article-title>. <source>J. Am. Chem. Soc.</source> <volume>135</volume>, <fpage>2037</fpage>&#x02013;<lpage>2039</lpage>. <pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1021/ja312032c</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">23350529</pub-id></citation></ref>
<ref id="B13">
<citation citation-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Ling</surname> <given-names>X.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Guo</surname> <given-names>J.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Zheng</surname> <given-names>C.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Ye</surname> <given-names>C.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Lu</surname> <given-names>Y.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Pan</surname> <given-names>X.</given-names></name> <etal/></person-group>. (<year>2015</year>). <article-title>Simple, effective protein extraction method and proteomics analysis from polyunsaturated fatty acids-producing micro-organisms</article-title>. <source>Bioprocess Biosyst. Eng.</source> <volume>38</volume>, <fpage>2331</fpage>&#x02013;<lpage>2341</lpage>. <pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1007/s00449-015-1467-7</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">26391510</pub-id></citation></ref>
<ref id="B14">
<citation citation-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Mann</surname> <given-names>M.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Jensen</surname> <given-names>O. N.</given-names></name></person-group> (<year>2003</year>). <article-title>Proteomic analysis of post-translational modifications</article-title>. <source>Nat. Biotechnol.</source> <volume>21</volume>, <fpage>255</fpage>&#x02013;<lpage>261</lpage>. <pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1038/nbt0303-255</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">12610572</pub-id></citation></ref>
<ref id="B15">
<citation citation-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Ng</surname> <given-names>I. S.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Ye</surname> <given-names>C.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Li</surname> <given-names>Y.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Chen</surname> <given-names>B. Y.</given-names></name></person-group> (<year>2016</year>). <article-title>Insights into copper effect on <italic>Proteus hauseri</italic> through proteomic and metabolic analyses</article-title>. <source>J. Biosci. Bioeng.</source> <volume>121</volume>, <fpage>178</fpage>&#x02013;<lpage>185</lpage>. <pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1016/j.jbiosc.2015.06.011</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">26194304</pub-id></citation></ref>
<ref id="B16">
<citation citation-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Opella</surname> <given-names>S. J.</given-names></name> <name><surname>DeSilva</surname> <given-names>T. M.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Veglia</surname> <given-names>G.</given-names></name></person-group> (<year>2002</year>). <article-title>Structural biology of metal-binding sequences</article-title>. <source>Curr. Opin. Chem. Biol.</source> <volume>6</volume>, <fpage>217</fpage>&#x02013;<lpage>223</lpage>. <pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1016/S1367-5931(02)00314-9</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">12039007</pub-id></citation></ref>
<ref id="B17">
<citation citation-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Shoshan</surname> <given-names>M. S.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Tshuva</surname> <given-names>E. Y.</given-names></name></person-group> (<year>2011</year>). <article-title>The MXCXXC class of metallochaperone proteins: model studies</article-title>. <source>Chem. Soc. Rev.</source> <volume>40</volume>, <fpage>5282</fpage>&#x02013;<lpage>5292</lpage>. <pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1039/c1cs15086c</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">21695339</pub-id></citation></ref>
<ref id="B18">
<citation citation-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Stock</surname> <given-names>A. M.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Robinson</surname> <given-names>V. L.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Goudreau</surname> <given-names>P. N.</given-names></name></person-group> (<year>2000</year>). <article-title>Two-component signal transduction</article-title>. <source>Annu. Rev. Biochem.</source> <volume>69</volume>, <fpage>183</fpage>&#x02013;<lpage>215</lpage>. <pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1146/annurev.biochem.69.1.183</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">10966457</pub-id></citation></ref>
<ref id="B19">
<citation citation-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Wilkins</surname> <given-names>M. R.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Sanchez</surname> <given-names>J.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Gooley</surname> <given-names>A. A.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Appel</surname> <given-names>R. D.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Humphery-Smith</surname> <given-names>I.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Hochstrasser</surname> <given-names>D. F.</given-names></name> <etal/></person-group>. (<year>1995</year>). <article-title>Progress with proteome projects: why all proteins expressed by a genome should be identified and how to do it</article-title>. <source>Biotechnol. Genet. Eng. Rev.</source> <volume>13</volume>:<fpage>19e50</fpage>. <pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">8948108</pub-id></citation></ref>
<ref id="B20">
<citation citation-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>W&#x000F6;sten</surname> <given-names>M. M.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Kox</surname> <given-names>L. F.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Chamnongpol</surname> <given-names>S.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Soncini</surname> <given-names>F. C.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Groisman</surname> <given-names>E. A.</given-names></name></person-group> (<year>2000</year>). <article-title>A signal transduction system that responds to extracellular iron</article-title>. <source>Cell</source> <volume>103</volume>, <fpage>113</fpage>&#x02013;<lpage>125</lpage>. <pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1016/S0092-8674(00)00092-1</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">11051552</pub-id></citation></ref>
<ref id="B21">
<citation citation-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Ye</surname> <given-names>C.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Ng</surname> <given-names>I. S.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Jing</surname> <given-names>K.</given-names></name> <name><surname>Lu</surname> <given-names>Y.</given-names></name></person-group> (<year>2014</year>). <article-title>Direct proteomic mapping for <italic>Streptomyces roseosporus</italic> NRRL11379 with precursor and insights into daptomycin biosynthesis</article-title>. <source>J. Biosci. Bioeng.</source> <volume>117</volume>, <fpage>591</fpage>&#x02013;<lpage>597</lpage>. <pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1016/j.jbiosc.2013.10.021</pub-id></citation></ref>
</ref-list>
</back>
</article>