The Proteome of Extracellular Vesicles Produced by the Human Gut Bacteria Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron <i>In Vivo</i> Is Influenced by Environmental and Host-Derived Factors
Régis Stentz, Emily Jones, Rokas Juodeikis, Udo Wegmann, María Guirro, Andrew Goldson, Arlaine Brion, Catherine Booth, Padhmanand Sudhakar, Ian R. Brown, Tamás Korcsmáros, Simon R. Carding
Abstract
The gastrointestinal tract (GIT) harbors a complex community of microbes termed the microbiota that plays a role in maintaining the host's health and wellbeing. How this comes about and the nature of microbe-host cell interactions in the GIT is still unclear. Recently, nanosized vesicles naturally produced by bacterial constituents of the microbiota have been shown to influence responses of different host cells although the molecular basis and identity of vesicle-born bacterial proteins that mediate these interactions is unclear. We show here that bacterial extracellular vesicles (BEVs) produced by the human symbiont Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron in the GIT are enriched in a set of proteins and enzymes, including dipeptidyl peptidases, an asparaginase and a bile salt hydrolase that can influence host cell biosynthetic pathways. Our results provide new insights into the molecular basis of microbiota-host interactions that are central to maintaining GIT homeostasis and health.