Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 (EcN) is a probiotic used for the treatment of intestinal disorders. EcN improves gastrointestinal homeostasis and microbiota balance; however, little is known about how this probiotic delivers effector molecules to the host. Outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) are constitutively produced by Gram-negative bacteria and have a relevant role in bacteria-host interactions. Using 1D SDS-PAGE and highly sensitive LC-MS/MS analysis we identified in this study 192 EcN vesicular proteins with high confidence in three independent biological replicates. Of these proteins, 18 were encoded by strain-linked genes and 57 were common to pathogen-derived OMVs. These proteins may contribute to the ability of this probiotic to colonize the human gut as they fulfil functions related to adhesion, immune modulation or bacterial survival in host niches. This study describes the first global OMV proteome of a probiotic strain and provides evidence that probiotic-derived OMVs contain proteins that can target these vesicles to the host and mediate their beneficial effects on intestinal function. All MS data have been deposited in the ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD000367 (http://proteomecentral.proteomexchange.org/dataset/PXD000367). © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.
