Isolation and partial characterization of the surface protein of Lactobacillus acidophilus strains

A surface protein layer was found to be present in some Lactobacillus acidophilus strains. it could be visualized with electron microscopy and extracted with sodium dodecyl sulfate or guanidine hydrochloride. The protein was resistant to several proteolytic enzymes, but sensitive to pronase. Amino acid composition analysis revealed about 30% hydrophobic amino acids. Hydrophobicity study with a hexadecane partition assay demonstrated that the cells were hydrophobic and removal of the surface layer with pronase destroyed the hydrophobic nature of the cells. Several growth conditions studies were found to have little effect on synthesis of the surface protein.