Activity-based protein profiling methods to study bacteria: The power of small-molecule electrophiles

ABPP methods have been utilized for the last two decades as a means to investigate complex proteomes in all three domains of life. Extensive use in eukaryotes has provided a more fundamental understanding of the biological processes involved in numerous diseases and has driven drug discovery and treatment campaigns. However, the use of ABPP in prokaryotes has been less common, although it has gained more attention over the last decade. The urgent need for understanding bacteriophysiology and bacterial pathogenicity at a foundational level has never been more apparent, as the rise in antibiotic resistance has resulted in the inadequate and ineffective treatment of infections. This is not only a result of resistance to clinically used antibiotics, but also a lack of new drugs and equally as important, new drug targets. ABPP provides a means for which new, clinically relevant drug targets may be identified through gaining insight into biological processes. In this chapter, we place particular focus on the discussion of ABPP strategies that have been applied to study different classes of bacterial enzymes.