Protein Fractionation Methods Applied to the Delineation of Bioactive Proteins from the Zebra Mussel, Dreissena polymorpha.

Dreissena polymorpha is an invasive species that has infested the Great Lakes, portions of the Mississippi River, and roughly 250 lakes in Wisconsin. To date, there is no real ability to manage zebra mussels; efforts are limited to preventing the Zebra mussels from spreading further into Wisconsin. However, some groups in Europe have turned to the zebra mussel as a source for livestock feeds (McLaughlin, 2014.) In a tangential line of research, there is much interest in the study of marine shelled organisms, including abalone and crab, as sources of bioactive proteins. We have methods commonly used to understand the proteome of the shells of marine organisms to understand the protein content of the shells of zebra mussels. This poster reports on efforts to fractionate proteins and peptides as the first step towards understanding the antibiotic potential of zebra mussel shell extracts. Ammonium sulfate fractionation methods, as well as ion exchange chromatography and lectin chromatography, were investigated. This work may lead to the discovery a useful protein that creates a need for a bivalve that is otherwise an invasive pest in the United States.