Evidence of changes in cell surface proteins during growth of Lactobacillus casei under acidic conditions

In this research, changes were observed in cell surface proteins of a typical strain of the Lactobacillus casei was investigated in response to acidic growth conditions. Two dimensional electrophoresis and Western blot analyses were carried out to detect changes in relative abundance of proteins at the cell surface. The identity of the differentially expressed proteins extracted by LiCl, a chemical routinely used to extract surface proteins of lactic acid bacteria, was determined by MALDI-TOF/TOF MS. Many enzymes involved in glycolysis were up-regulated in the cell surface fraction following growth at low pH, including enolase, lactate dehydrogenase, and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase. Several of these proteins were also related to adhesion and generalized stress responses. It is demonstrated that growth of L. casei under acidic conditions caused molecular changes at the cell surface to develop an adaptive strategy corresponding to slower growth at low pH.