The Quagga Mussel (Dreissena Bugensis) Byssus: A Proteomics Approach to Investigate Underwater Attachment Proteins in a Freshwater Mussel

The European freshwater mollusk Dreissena bugensis (quagga mussel) adheres to a plethora of surfaces underwater via the byssus: a proteinacious 'anchor'. We propose to reveal the proteins responsible for underwater adhesion and their corresponding molecular mechanism in order to create bioadhesives for medical and dental applications, and to develop targeted anti-fouling coatings. We report here sequence data for fifteen novel byssal proteins and two previously known byssal proteins. We also report here the first genomic information available for the quagga mussel species. Proteins were separated and identified using Tris-Bis SDS-PAGE, and proteins were localized at the plaque interface using MALDI-TOF MS. We created a foot transcriptome library using next-generation RNA-sequencing technologies and de novo assembly. We determined the primary sequence of byssal proteins by LC-MS/MS to fingerprint protein sequences from our transcriptome library. We now have a list of adhesive protein candidates for further characterization.M.A.S.2018-03-01 00:00:0