Human cecum content modulates production of extracellular proteins by food and probiotic bacteria

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are responsible for different types of food fermentations that provide humans with many different classes of fermented products. During the 20th century, some LAB strains as well as several members of the genus Bifidobacterium started to be extensively used in human nutrition as probiotics because of their health-promoting effects. Nowadays, the subset of extracellular proteins is being investigated as potential mediators of the process known as bacteria-host molecular crosstalk. Inclusion of human cecum extracts in laboratory culture medium modified the production of extracellular proteins by food and probiotic microorganisms. By proteomic and genetic means, the specific overproduction of two proteins was revealed to occur at transcriptional level. This work sheds light on the potential molecular effectors that food bacteria could use for interacting with the human gut and revealed that they may be produced under very specific environmental conditions. © 2011 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.BS was the recipient of a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral contract from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovació́n. LR was the recipient of an I3P predoctoral grant from CSIC. Research in our group is supported by Grants AGL2007-61805 and RM2010-00012-00-00 from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación.Peer Reviewe