Label-free quantitative proteomic analysis of Lactobacillus fermentum NCDC 400 during bile salt exposure

Lactobacillus fermentum NCDC 400 is a commonly used and a comprehensively studied probiotic organism. The distinctive capability to endure the harsh environment of the gastrointestinal tract owing to the presence of bile salts in gastric juice facilitates gut microbiota, especially the probiotic organisms to transiently inhabit the host gut. In the present study, Label-Free Quantification (LFQ) approach has been employed to analyze the expression pattern of Lactobacillus fermentum NCDC 400 strain proteins, under bile acid stress, using high-resolution mass spectrometer connected to nano-liquid chromatography (LC) system. We report the identification of a total of 538 differentially expressed (DE) proteins in response to 1.2% bile salt which is required for the growth of this bacterium. Among the DE proteins, 80 were found to be up-regulated, with greater than 1.3 fold change vis-à-vis 107 proteins which were down-regulated with <0.76 fold change (p<0.05). The functions of down-regulated proteins were largely unknown nevertheless; the putative functions of the up-regulated proteins were categorized into categories viz. stress response, DNA repair, peptidoglycan biosynthesis, amino acids metabolism, signal transduction, transcription, translation, and carbohydrate metabolism. These results suggest that the differentially expressed proteins provide the tolerance towards the various gastrointestinal challenges and involved in bile acid stress response mechanism.