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Influence of osmotic stress on the profile and gene expression of surface layer proteins in Lactobacillus acidophilus ATCC 4356

  • Applied microbial and cell physiology
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Abstract

In this work, we studied the role of surface layer (S-layer) proteins in the adaptation of Lactobacillus acidophilus ATCC 4356 to the osmotic stress generated by high salt. The amounts of the predominant and the auxiliary S-layer proteins SlpA and SlpX were strongly influenced by the growth phase and high-salt conditions (0.6 M NaCl). Changes in gene expression were also observed as the mRNAs of the slpA and slpX genes increased related to the growth phase and presence of high salt. A growth stage-dependent modification on the S-layer protein profile in response to NaCl was observed: while in control conditions, the auxiliary SlpX protein represented less than 10 % of the total S-layer protein, in high-salt conditions, it increased to almost 40 % in the stationary phase. The increase in S-layer protein synthesis in the stress condition could be a consequence of or a way to counteract the fragility of the cell wall, since a decrease in the cell wall thickness and envelope components (peptidoglycan layer and lipoteichoic acid content) was observed in L. acidophilus when compared to a non-S-layer-producing species such as Lactobacillus casei. Also, the stationary phase and growth in high-salt medium resulted in increased release of S-layer proteins to the supernatant medium. Overall, these findings suggest that pre-growth in high-salt conditions would result in an advantage for the probiotic nature of L. acidophilus ATCC 4356 as the increased amount and release of the S-layer might be appropriate for its antimicrobial capacity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorio Bacterias Gram Positivas, sus Fagos y Estrés, Departamento de Química Biológica, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales-UBA, IQUIBICEN-CONICET, Ciudad Universitaria, Pabellon II, piso 4, Buenos Aires, 1428, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina

    María Mercedes Palomino, Pablo M. Waehner, Joaquina Fina Martin, Paula Ojeda, Lucía Malone, Carmen Sánchez Rivas, Mariano Prado Acosta, Mariana C. Allievi & Sandra M. Ruzal

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  1. María Mercedes Palomino
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  2. Pablo M. Waehner
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  3. Joaquina Fina Martin
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  4. Paula Ojeda
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  5. Lucía Malone
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  6. Carmen Sánchez Rivas
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  7. Mariano Prado Acosta
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  8. Mariana C. Allievi
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  9. Sandra M. Ruzal
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Correspondence to Sandra M. Ruzal.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the Universidad de Buenos Aires 20020130100444BA and the Agencia de Promocion Científica y Tecnológica PICT2012-0789 Argentina to SMR. PMW and JFM are graduate fellows of ANPCyT and CONICET, respectively.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Additional information

María Mercedes Palomino and Pablo M. Waehner contributed equally to this work.

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Palomino, M.M., Waehner, P.M., Fina Martin, J. et al. Influence of osmotic stress on the profile and gene expression of surface layer proteins in Lactobacillus acidophilus ATCC 4356. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 100, 8475–8484 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-016-7698-y

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