Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2013 Jun;97(12):5225-43.
doi: 10.1007/s00253-013-4962-2. Epub 2013 May 16.

Lactobacillus surface layer proteins: structure, function and applications

Ulla Hynönen  1 , Airi Palva
Affiliations
Review

Lactobacillus surface layer proteins: structure, function and applications

Ulla Hynönen et al. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2013 Jun.

Abstract

Bacterial surface (S) layers are the outermost proteinaceous cell envelope structures found on members of nearly all taxonomic groups of bacteria and Archaea. They are composed of numerous identical subunits forming a symmetric, porous, lattice-like layer that completely covers the cell surface. The subunits are held together and attached to cell wall carbohydrates by non-covalent interactions, and they spontaneously reassemble in vitro by an entropy-driven process. Due to the low amino acid sequence similarity among S-layer proteins in general, verification of the presence of an S-layer on the bacterial cell surface usually requires electron microscopy. In lactobacilli, S-layer proteins have been detected on many but not all species. Lactobacillus S-layer proteins differ from those of other bacteria in their smaller size and high predicted pI. The positive charge in Lactobacillus S-layer proteins is concentrated in the more conserved cell wall binding domain, which can be either N- or C-terminal depending on the species. The more variable domain is responsible for the self-assembly of the monomers to a periodic structure. The biological functions of Lactobacillus S-layer proteins are poorly understood, but in some species S-layer proteins mediate bacterial adherence to host cells or extracellular matrix proteins or have protective or enzymatic functions. Lactobacillus S-layer proteins show potential for use as antigen carriers in live oral vaccine design because of their adhesive and immunomodulatory properties and the general non-pathogenicity of the species.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
A neighbour-joining phylogenetic tree based on Lactobacillus S-layer protein sequences for which gene expression data are currently available. The scale bar indicates the phylogenetic distances expressed as the number of amino acid substitutions per sequence. Bootstrap values are indicated at the nodes for 500 replicates. The partial S-layer protein sequence of L. helveticus MIMLh5 was excluded from the analysis. Asterisk corresponding gene is known to be silent
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Ahn JS, Chandramohan L, Liou LE, Bayles KW. Characterization of CidR-mediated regulation in Bacillus anthracis reveals a previously undetected role of S-layer proteins as murein hydrolases. Mol Microbiol. 2006;62:1158–1169. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.2006.05433.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Altermann E, Russell WM, Azcarate-Peril A, Barrangou R, Buck BL, McAuliffe O, Souther N, Dobson A, Duong T, Callanan M, Lick S, Hamrick A, Cano R, Klaenhammer TR. Complete genome sequence of the probiotic lactic acid bacterium Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM. PNAS. 2005;102:3906–3912. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0409188102. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Antikainen J, Anton L, Sillanpää J, Korhonen TK. Domains in the S-layer protein CbsA of Lactobacillus crispatus involved in adherence to collagens, laminin and lipoteichoic acids and in self-assembly. Mol Microbiol. 2002;2:381–394. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2958.2002.03180.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ashida N, Yanagihara S, Shinoda T, Yamamoto N. Characterization of adhesive molecule with affinity to Caco-2 cells in Lactobacillus acidophilus by proteome analysis. J Biosci Bioeng. 2011;112:333–337. doi: 10.1016/j.jbiosc.2011.06.001. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ausiello CM, Cerquetti M, Fedele G, Spensieri F, Palazzo R, Nasso M, Frezza S, Mastrantonio P. Surface layer proteins from Clostridium difficile induce inflammatory and regulatory cytokines in human monocytes and dendritic cells. Microbes Infect. 2006;8:2640–2646. doi: 10.1016/j.micinf.2006.07.009. - DOI - PubMed

MeSH terms