Updated publication reference for PubMed record(s): 34290676. The link between the gut microbiota and the human physiological state has been demonstrated in recent years. High gut microbiota diversity has been linked to many beneficial functions necessary or human health, while dysbiosis has been correlated to different pathological states. In this context, the study of the gut microbiota results of high relevance been necessary the development of different techniques capable of characterizing this complex ecosystem. Metaproteomics has been proved useful in the characterization of complex protein samples becoming a suitable tool for the study of these microbial communities. However, due to the complexity of these samples, protein extraction protocols may affect metaproteomics results. In this context, we evaluated stool sample processing (SSP) and microbial cell disruption, assessing the impact of different protocol modifications in the number of peptides and proteins identified. We compared different stool processing conditions and microbial cell disruption methods in terms of protein and peptide identifications and taxonomic profiles.