HU Yu, ZHANG Hong, ZHANG Huiling, XIE Han, LU Zhenming, CHAI Lijuan, ZHANG Xiaojuan, SHI Jinsong, XU Zhenghong
As a kind of probiotics widely used in the food industry, lactic acid bacteria are affected by various environmental stresses in the fermentation process and digestive tract. The production of yogurt, kimchi, high-acid fruit and vegetable juices and other foods all put forward requirements for the stress resistance of the bacteria. Some microorganisms can form biofilms to improve their environmental tolerance ability. According to the previous reports, the quorum sensing systems is associated with the formation of bacterial biofilms, and the regulation of quorum sensing systems may be potential regulatory targets for improving the fermentation performance of lactic acid bacteria. Previously, we have obtained a citric acid tolerant strain - Lactobacillus plantarum LP-D840, which was acclimated from its parent strain- L. plantarum D by gradually increasing citric acid concentration in the medium. The original strain and the acclimated strain are suitable samples for understanding the correlation between quorum sensing and strain tolerance, due to their highly similar gene background. In this study, the difference regarding the physiological and metabolic properties and the AI-2/LuxS system between the parent and acclimated strains were compared. The effects of exogenous quorum sensing interferents, including (S)-4,5-dihydroxy-2,3-pentanedione (DPD) and S-adenosylmethionine(SAM), on the growth and metabolism of the strain were analyzed. The production of signal molecule AI-2 was detected by the bioluminescence method, the changes of gene transcription level were determined by reverse transcription real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR), and metabolites were detected by HPLC. The results showed that the biofilm formation ability of acclimated strain - L. plantarum D-840 was 485% higher than that of parent strain - L. plantarum D, and the cell density of L. plantarum D-840 was 5.4 times higher than that of L. plantarum D under the stress of citric acid. The acclimated strain L. plantarum D-840 showed distinct capability of biofilm formation, whereas the original L. plantarum D did not show biofilm synthesis. By controlling the agitating condition, the planktonic and biofilm cells of L. plantarum D-840 were obtained separately. Compared with planktonic cells, the biofilm cells of L. plantarum D-840 had higher tolerance to citric acid, malic acid, and bile salts. The result showed that the higher stress tolerance to citric acid of L. plantarum D-840 was closely associated with its biofilm formation. The two strains entered the logarithmic growth phase at about 4 h, and the signal molecule AI-2 accumulated rapidly during 4-8 h. The AI-2 production of L. plantarum D-840 and L. plantarum D decreased slightly after reaching the highest value at 8 h and 16 h, respectively. During the fermentation process, the AI-2 synthesis ability of the two strains (AI-2/OD) showed a decreasing trend initially and then stabilized. Under citric acid stress, the AI-2 produced by L. plantarum D-840 and L. plantarum D showed a positive correlation with the concentration of citric acid, while the AI-2 activity of per unit absorbance produced by L. plantarum D-840 was significantly lower than L. plantarum D. RT-qPCR results showed that the expression of luxS gene was down-regulated in two strains under citric acid stress, while the expression of pfs gene was up-regulated. At citric acid, the expression of luxS gene in L. plantarum D and L. plantarum D-840 decreased by 34.5% and 28.8% (P<0.05), respectively, while the pfs gene increased by 71.4% and 49.3% (P<0.05), respectively. Therefore, compared with luxS gene, pfs gene has a more significant regulatory effect on the synthesis of AI-2, and has a closer correlation with the citric acid tolerance of the strains in this study. The addition of AI-2 precursor DPD had no significant effect on the growth curves of the two strains, while it could affect the production of lactate and phenyllactate of L. plantarum D-840. When the concentration of DPD was greater than 0.5 μmol/L, the synthesis of lactic acid of L. plantarum D-840 was significantly inhibited. While the production of phenyllactic acid in L. plantarum D-840 was significantly increased by 27.1% at the addition of 0.1 μmol/L DPD. SAM inhibited the growth of the two strains, but promoted the synthesis of phenyllactic acid. When the concentration of SAM was 1 g/L, the production of phenyllactic acid in L. plantarum D and L. plantarum D-840 increased by 12.2% and 25.5%, respectively. The result indicated that the regulation effect of SAM on the physiological metabolism of the strain was better than that of DPD. This study indicated that the AI-2/LuxS system has a significant correlation with the stress resistance and metabolic properties of Lactobacillus plantarum. Via the addition of AI-2 precursors, the AI-2/LuxS system can be up-regulated, and the accumulation of relevant metabolites can be enhanced. This information provided a novel approach for improving the fermentation performance of Lactobacillus plantarum, and the results might be expanded to other lactic acid bacteria.