Quantitative proteome profiling of Coxiella burnetii reveals major metabolic and stress differences under axenic and cell culture cultivation – proteome dataset

Coxiella burnetii, a category B select agent, is endemic worldwide, except New Zealand. It causes annually several outbreaks of the zoonotic disease Q fever predominantly in small ruminants. To date, the lipopolysaccharide (LPS), besides a type IV secretion system (T4SS), is the only defined and characterized virulence determinant of C. burnetii. This surface molecule is used to distinguish between virulent (Ph I) and low-virulent (Ph II) organisms, the latter emerge only after frequent passaging in the laboratory. As an obligate intracellular pathogen, targeted genetic modification is still not a routine and labour intensive procedure. The deeper study of novel determinants is complicated and demands not only advanced techniques for axenic and for cell culture-based cultivation but also novel approaches in the high-resolution mass spectrometry. This work is the first proteomic study comparing. C. burnetii Ph I and Ph II propagated in different axenic media and in cell culture.