Selection of mutants tolerant of oxidative stress from respiratory cultures of Lactobacillus plantarum C17.

Journal of Applied Microbiology ISSN 1364-5072

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Selection of mutants tolerant of oxidative stress from respiratory cultures of Lactobacillus plantarum C17 T. Zotta1, R.G. Ianniello2, A. Guidone2, E. Parente1,2 and A. Ricciardi1,2 1 Istituto di Scienze dell’Alimentazione-CNR, Avellino, Italy 2 Scuola di Scienze Agrarie, Forestali, Alimentari e Ambientali, Universit a degli Studi della Basilicata, Potenza, Italy

Keywords Lactobacillus plantarum, mutants, oxidative stress response, respiration. Correspondence Teresa Zotta, Istituto di Scienze dell’Alimentazione-CNR, via Roma 64, 83110 Avellino, Italy. E-mail: [email protected] 2013/1433: received 17 July 2013, revised 4 November 2013 and accepted 15 November 2013 doi:10.1111/jam.12398

Abstract Aims: Lactobacillus plantarum is a lactic acid bacterium involved in the production of many fermented foods. Recently, several studies have demonstrated that aerobic or respiratory metabolism in this species leads to improved technological and stress response properties. Methods and Results: We investigated respiratory growth, metabolite production and stress resistance of Lact. plantarum C17 during batch, fedbatch and chemostat cultivations under respiratory conditions. Sixty mutants were selected for their ability to tolerate oxidative stress using H2O2 and menadione as selective agents and further screened for their capability to growth under anaerobic, respiratory and oxidative stress conditions. Dilution rate clearly affected the physiological state of cells and, generally, slow-growing cultures had improved survival to stresses, catalase production and oxygen uptake. Most mutants were more competitive in terms of biomass production and ROS degradation compared with wild-type strain (wt) C17 and two of these (C17-m19 and C17-m58) were selected for further experiments. Conclusions: This work confirms that, in Lact. plantarum, respiration and low growth rates confer physiological and metabolic advantages compared with anaerobic cultivation. Significance and Impact of the Study: Our strategy of natural selection successfully provides a rapid and inexpensive screening for a large number of strains and represents a food-grade approach of practical relevance in the production of starter and probiotic cultures.

Introduction Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are oxygen tolerant anaerobes used as starter, adjunctive or probiotic cultures in the production of many fermented and functional foods to improve organoleptic properties, increase safety and shelf-life and promote human health. During their use in foods, LAB are subjected to physical and chemical stresses that may impair growth, cell viability and fermentation capabilities and the type of metabolism mainly affects the robustness to harmful conditions by changing technological properties of strains: aerobic cultivation and the presence of heme and menaquinone in the medium induces in some LAB species (Lactococcus lactis, Streptococcus 632

agalactiae, Enterococcus faecalis and Lactobacillus plantarum) the activation of an electron transport chain (ETC, respiratory metabolism), the synthesis of ROS (reactive oxygen species) detoxifying enzymes as well as an improved stress tolerance and biomass production (Lechardeur et al. 2011; Pedersen et al. 2012). The shift towards aerobic and respiratory pathway has been studied and characterized in the dairy starter Lc. lactis, allowing the selection of strains with improved technological and stress response properties, and this has been successfully exploited for an industrial scale production by Chr. Hansen A/S (Pedersen et al. 2005). More recently, several authors (Brooijmans et al. 2009a; Mazzeo et al. 2012; Quatravaux et al. 2006; Stevens et al. 2008; Watanabe

Journal of Applied Microbiology 116, 632--643 © 2013 The Society for Applied Microbiology

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et al. 2012a,b; Zotta et al. 2012) have demonstrated that in the versatile species Lact. plantarum the presence of functional aerobic or respiratory metabolism could also be useful for new applications in food technology and starter or probiotic development. However, most of these studies referred to the model strain Lact. plantarum WCFS1 and only a few (Guidone et al. 2013a; Watanabe et al. 2012a,b; Zotta et al. 2012) have considered the effect of oxygen and cofactor supplementation on the stress response of this species. We previously (Zotta et al. 2013) investigated the effect of temperature, aeration and hemin–menaquinone supply on the growth, oxygen-related enzymes and stress behaviour of Lact. plantarum C17 during batch fermentations in comparison with anaerobic cultivation. Overall, we confirmed the recent observations (Watanabe et al. 2012a; Zotta et al. 2012) for which aerobic and respiratory lifestyle offers advantages compared with anaerobic growth. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of respiration on the stress tolerance of Lact. plantarum C17 under more controlled growth conditions, using fedbatch and chemostat cultivations. This type of propagation has been widely exploited in several LAB species to reach an increased biomass and metabolite (organic acids, bacteriocins) production (Callewaert and De Vuyst 2000; Castro et al. 2007; Hwang et al. 2011; Mende et al. 2012; Peng et al. 2006; Racine and Saha 2007), but few authors have investigated the usefulness of fed-batch and continuous growth to understand the mechanisms of aerobic or respiratory metabolism and stress response (Dressaire et al. 2008; Papagianni et al. 2007; Tseng and Montville 1992) in LAB. Therefore, we combined chemostat cultivations and respiratory growth to achieve high-cell-density cultures (which could be of practical relevance for starter development) and to clarify some metabolic and stressrelated aspects in Lact. plantarum. Additionally, because the most common methods to enhance the competitiveness of strains are based on sitedirected mutagenesis, using a range of recombinant DNA techniques, we tried to improve the phenotypic properties of wild-type strain Lact. plantarum C17 through spontaneous mutagenesis using high concentration of ROS (reactive oxygen species) generators to select respiratory cells with competitive phenotypes. Material and methods Strains and culture conditions Lactobacillus plantarum C17, isolated from Caciocavallo cheese, was selected because of its stress tolerance (Parente et al. 2010), functional properties (Guidone et al. 2013b;

Selection of mutants from Lactobacillus plantarum C17

Ciocia et al. 2013) and ability to shift towards aerobic/ respiratory metabolism (Guidone et al. 2013a; Zotta et al. 2013). The strain was maintained as freeze-dried stock in reconstituted 11% (w/v) skim milk containing 01% (w/ v) ascorbic acid (RSM) in the Culture Collection of Scuola di Scienze Agrarie, Forestali, Alimentari e Ambientali, Universita degli Studi della Basilicata. For routine propagation (16 h, 35°C), a complex basal medium (WMB, Zotta et al. 2012) was used, while for batch, fed-batch and continuous cultivations a modified (without sodium acetate 5 g l 1) WMB (mWMB) was used. Continuous fermentations Chemostat cultivations were carried out in a 3-l glass fermentor (Applikon, Schiedam, the Netherlands), filled with 15 l of mWMB, under respiratory promoting conditions (air 02 v/v per min, with 25 lg ml 1 hemin and 1 lg ml 1 menaquinone supplementation) at 35°C (optimal temperature of growth for Lact. plantarum C17; ezControl controller, Applikon, Schiedam, the Netherlands) and constant pH of 65. Agitation was performed with a minimum impeller speed of 200 rev min 1 (2 Rushton turbines, diameter 45 mm), pH was controlled by automatic addition of sterile 1 : 1 Na2CO3/ NaOH solution (4 eq l 1), while foaming was controlled by adding 1% (v/v) Antifoam A solution. Concentration of dissolved oxygen (DO%) was measured by a polarographic electrode (Applisens, Applikon, Schiedam, the Netherlands) and controlled at ≥30% by automatically varying stirrer speed. The bioreactor was inoculated (5% v/v) with an overnight aerobic WMB preculture and operated batchwise (10 g l 1 initial glucose) until early stationary growth phase was reached, continuous feeding (40 g l 1glucose in the feed, SF) of fresh medium was started at a flow of 36 ml h 1. Fed-batch operation was used until the volume (V) reached 2 l. Volume was brought at 15 l and kept constant using inflow and overflow tubes connected to a peristaltic pump (model 502S, WatsonMarlow Ltd., England). Fresh medium (SF = 10 g l 1) was fed into the fermentor, and continuous cultures were operated at dilution rates (D) of 031, 017, 007 and 004 h 1 by varying the flow rate (F). Sampling was started after at least three culture volumes were passed through the vessel and, to ensure the steady state of culture, the optical density at 650 nm (OD650) of three samples taken from the outlet medium at 30-min intervals was measured. If the OD650 values were stable, three additional samples were taken and used for the subsequent analyses.


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Chemical and biochemical analyses Cell dry weight (measured after drying the washed biomass at 105°C for 24 h) was used to estimate the biomass yield per unit substrate consumed (YX/S, g g 1). Residual glucose (as reducing sugar) in culture supernatants was measured using the 3,5-dinitrosalicylic acid (DNSA) method (Miller 1959), while enzymatic kits (RBiopharm AG, Darmstadt, Germany) were used to quantify lactic and acetic acid. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) concentration in supernatants and catalase activity in whole cells were measured as described by Risse et al. (1992). The activities of enzymes related to aerobic metabolism (pyruvate oxidase, POX; NADH oxidase, NOX; NADH peroxidase, NPR) were measured in cell-free extracts (FastPrep-24 Instrument, MP Biomedicals, Santa Ana, CA) according to Quatravaux et al. (2006) at both 25 and 37°C (in vitro assay temperature). Oxygen uptake The oxygen uptake of batch, fed-batch and steady-state cells was measured in situ by temporarily closing the air supply in the bioreactor and by monitoring the decrease in dissolved oxygen concentration (DO%) for 2 min at 35°C (15-sec intervals). DO% values were transformed into lmol l 1 using the Henry’s law, and the specific oxygen uptake rate (lmol O2/min/g biomass) was calculated. Stress treatments Tolerance of heat, freezing, freeze-drying and oxidative stresses was evaluated as described in Zotta et al. (2013). For heat treatments, batch, fed-batch and steady-state cells (whole cells recovered by centrifugation at 12 000 g, 5 min and washed and re-suspended in 20 mmol l 1 phosphate buffer pH 70, PB7; final OD650 = 10) were exposed at 55°C for 0, 5, 10, 15 and 30 min in PB7, and the number of survivors was estimated by pour plate counts in WMA (35°C, 48 h, anaerobiosis). The kinetics of inactivation were fitted using a Weibull model (van Boekel 2002). Tolerance of freezing (cells resuspended in RSM, OD650 = 10, storage at 20°C in 50% w/w glycerol solution, thawing) and freeze-drying (cells re-suspended in RSM, OD650 = 10, freeze-drying and storage at 20°C) was also evaluated by pour plating the samples on WMA (35°C, 48 h, anaerobiosis) after 30 days of storage. To estimate the survival after oxidative stress, batch, fed-batch and steady-state cells were exposed (30 min, 634

35°C) to different H2O2 concentrations (from 08 to 00015 mol l 1) and the survivors (if any) were cultivated in WMB (pH 68, 16 h, 35°C, microplate experiment) and spread plated on WMA (35°C, 48 h, anaerobiosis). Additionally, the tolerance of menadione (a superoxide generator) was also evaluated by spread plate counting on WMA containing menadione (03– 0018 mmol l 1). For continuous cultures, two replicate samples taken at 60-min distance were used and the stress treatments were performed in duplicate. Selection of random mutants The mutants were selected from batch, fed-batch and chemostat (D = 031, 017, 007 and 004 h 1) cultures. At the end of each cultivation step, the cells were (i) exposed (30 min, 35°C) to different H2O2 concentrations (from 08 to 00015 mol l 1) and cultivated (100 ll; by spread plating) on WMA (35°C, 48 h, anaerobiosis) and (ii) directly cultivated (100 ll; by spread plating) on WMA containing menadione (03–0018 mmol l 1). The survivors to the highest H2O2 (08 or 04 mol l 1) and menadione (0075 or 0036 mmol l 1) concentrations were randomly picked (10 colonies for each growth conditions, including 5 H2O2-survivors and 5 menadione-survivors), and a total of 60 tolerant mutants were collected and stored (glycerol 25% v/v) at 24°C until the use. Qualitative screening All mutants were screened (cultivation in 96-well microplate) and compared with the wild-type strain C17 for their ability (i) to grow in anaerobiosis (AN; static cultivation in WMB, initial pH 65, at 35°C for 16 h, using Generbox jars, bioMerieux SA, Marcyl’Etoile, France, and AnaeroGen bags, Oxoid; measurement of OD650), (ii) to grow in respiratory promoting conditions (RS; shaking cultivation in WMB with 25 lg mL 1 hemin and 1 lg ml 1 menaquinone, WMB+HM, initial pH 65, at 35°C for 16 h; agitation of microplates on a rotary shaker at 150 rev min 1; measurement of OD650) and (iii) to tolerate oxidative stress conditions (static cultivation in WMB with 016 g l 1 bromocresol purple, WMB+BCP, containing 08 or 04 mol l 1 H2O2 and in WMB+BCP with 0075 or 0036 mmol l 1 menadione, at 35°C for 16 h, using Generbox jars, bioMerieux SA, Marcy-l’Etoile, France, and AnaeroGen bags, Oxoid; change of colour from purple to yellow was considered as positive result). The effect of preculture (anaerobic or respiratory inoculum) on the growth and stress resistance was also evaluated.


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Quantitative selection Twenty strains were selected and grown (35°C, up to 24 h) under static (screw-cap tubes filled with WMB containing 10 g l 1 glucose and 01 mol l 1 MOPS, buffered WMB, initial pH 65; anaerobiosis) and shaking (250 ml baffled flasks with 50 ml buffered WMB+HM, agitation on a rotary shaker, 150 rev min 1; respiration) conditions, using anaerobic or respiratory inoculum as appropriate. Increase in OD650 and pH values was measured after 16 and 24 h of growth at 35°C. Growth experiment on the best performing mutants The two mutants C17-m19 and C17-m58 were further selected and used for a more complex anaerobic and respiratory growth experiments in the presence of either glucose or maltose (10 g l 1) as carbon source. Maximum specific growth rate (lmax), pH value and biomass production were measured after 8 and 24 h of incubation at 35°C. Reagents and culture media Unless otherwise noted, all reagents were obtained from Sigma-Aldrich s.r.l. (Milan, Italy) and culture media and ingredients from Oxoid (Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK). Statistical analysis All statistical and graphical analyses were performed using Systat 13.0 for Windows (Systat Software Inc., Richmond, CA).

Results Growth, chemical and biochemical analyses Growth parameters, sugar consumption and organic acid productions of Lact. plantarum C17 are shown in Table 1. Fed-batch and chemostat cultivations improved biomass yield (Yx/s) compared with the batch growth. Highest D rate cultivations resulted in higher residual glucose and lower production of total lactic acid (Yp/s), similarly in fed-batch cultures for which metabolite concentrations were significantly different from those measured during slow growth. Although cultivations were carried out under respiratory conditions, acetate (the main product of pyruvate oxidase-acetate kinase, POX–ACK, pathway) was not detected in supernatants. With the exception of cells cultivated in batch, high catalase activities (from 19 mkatal g 1 of biomass in 0170 h 1 D rate to 28 mkatal g 1 of biomass in the lowest 0040 h 1 D rate) were measured (Table 2) and therefore low levels of H2O2 were only found (002 mmol l 1) in batch cultures. Catalase activity was significantly and inversely correlated (r = 0958) with specific growth rate. Activities of the enzymes involved in aerobic metabolism As shown in a previous study (Zotta et al. 2013), the activities of POX and NPR were significantly (Tukey’s HSD, P < 0005) affected by the assay temperature (Fig. 1). POX was completely inhibited in vitro at 37°C, while NPR slightly decreased in this condition. NOX activity was not particularly correlated to assay temperature, even if a small

Table 1 Growth parameters and metabolic production of Lactobacillus plantarum C17 during batch, fed-batch and continuous cultivations, under respiratory conditions (air 02 v/v per min, with 25 lg ml 1 hemin and 1 lg ml 1 menaquinone supplementation), at 35°C and constant pH 65 Growth condition

D or lmax (h 1)

S–S0

Batch Fed-batch Continuous Continuous Continuous Continuous

0577 0070 0311 0173 0070 0041

394 2374 2736 3533 3728 3672

rS

020 025 026 009 005 005

228 170 851 612 262 152

YX/S

012 002 008 001 000 000

009 017 013 013 013 011

YP/S

001 000 000 000 000 000

(lactic acid)

034 047 047 057 070 079

001 002 000 002 001 000

Lactic acid (g l 1) 133 1121 1297 1997 2592 2890

011 036 000 070 023 014

Acetic acid (g l 1) 003 000 000 004 000 000

000 000 000 000 000 000

Mean valuesstandard error are shown. D = dilution rate was used for fed-batch and continuous cultivations; lmax = maximum specific growth rate was used for batch cultivation. S–S0 = consumed glucose, g. rS = rate of glucose consumption, g l 1 h 1. m = specific rate of glucose consumption, g g 1 h 1). YX/S = biomass yield coefficient (biomass yield, g, relative to total sugar consumed, g). YP/S = lactic acid yield (lactic acid produced, g, relative to total sugar consumed, g). Growth condition: All cultures were grown at 35°C in aerobiosis (in the presence of 25 lg ml 1 haemin and 1 lg ml 1 menaquinone).


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Table 2 Catalase activity, tolerance to oxidative stress and oxygen uptake of Lactobacillus plantarum C17 during batch, fed-batch and continuous cultivations Oxidative stress tolerance†

Growth condition

D or lmax (h 1)

Catalase*

Batch Fed-batch Continuous Continuous Continuous Continuous

0577 0070 0311 0173 0071 0041

010 255 197 194 232 281

000 044 037 078 047 107

Oxygen uptake‡

H2O2 (mol l 1)

Menadione (mmol l 1)

Maximum specific rate of O2 uptake (in situ)

04 08 04 02 08 08

0018 0075 0036 0036 0075 0075

0020 0108 0020 0054 0107 0087

(33 col) (13 col) (41 col) (20 col) (37 col) (186 col)

(spread) (72 col) (54 col) (85 col) (110 col) (149 col)

000 000 000 000 001 000

Stirrer speed parameters (rev min 1) Mean SD 2002 2462 3415 3515 3098 2962

10 205 717 899 1084 997

Min

Max

200 200 200 200 200 200

206 288 479 457 546 536

Mean valuesstandard error (se) are shown. D = dilution rate; lmax = maximum specific growth rate. *Catalase activity was expressed as mkatal g 1 of biomass. †The maximum concentration of H2O2 and menadione for which colony growth was evident is reported; col, average number of colonies counted on WMA plates and from which mutants were picked. ‡Oxygen uptake was measured in situ closing temporarily (maximum 2 min) the air sparger of stirred bioreactor and was expressed as lmol O2 g 1 of biomass, relative to residual glucose, mmol l 1. Stirrer speed parameters (mean valuesstandard deviation, minimum and maximum reached values) are reported to show the changes in oxygen consumption during growth conditions.

NOX

POX

d*

Assay temperature

a* b*

e*

f

f*

e a c

c d

a*

c e

b b

b d

0·07 h–1 0·04 h–1

0·17 h–1

Batch Fed-batch

a

c d Fed-batch 0·31 h–1

Batch

0·07 h–1 0·04 h–1

0·17 h–1

Fed-batch 0·31 h–1

Batch

a

c

0·17 h–1

f

0·31 h–1

e

None

0·07 h–1 0·04 h–1

37

0·07 0·06 0·05 0·04 0·03 0·02 0·01 0·00 0·07 0·06 0·05 0·04 0·03 0·02 0·01 0·00

µkatal mg–1 of protein

25

e*

b*

d*

b* c*

NPR

Growth condition Figure 1 Activities of the main enzymes related to aerobic metabolism, measured in cell-free extracts of batch, fed-batch and steady-state cultures of Lactobacillus plantarum C17 grown under respiratory promoting conditions (air 02 v/v per min, with 25 lg ml 1 hemin and 1 lg ml 1 menaquinone supplementation). Assay was carried out at both 25 and 37°C. POX, pyruvate oxidase; NOX, NADH oxidase; NPR, NADH peroxidase. Data were expressed as lkatal mg 1 of protein. As NOX and NPR, one katal corresponds to the oxidation of 1 mol of NADH per min at T°C; as POX, one katal corresponded to the production of 1 mol of H2O2 per min at T°C. Letters (a, b, c, d, e, f) on multiplot bars indicate significant differences (Tukey’s HSD, P < 0005) in enzymatic activities among growth conditions, asterisks (*) indicates significant differences between assay temperature. Standard error bars are shown.

increase was observed at 37°C in fed-batch and 007 h 1 D rate cells. NPR activity, but not NOX activity, showed a significant negative correlation with specific growth rate (r = 0829). Contrary to the NADH-dependent enzymes, 636

mainly detected during fed-batch and low (007 and 004 h 1) D rate growth (at both 25 and 37°C), the highest POX activities were measured in fast-growing cells (D = 031 and 017 h 1) when significant amounts of


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residual glucose (Table 1) were still available in the substrate.

20 0·04 h–1 0·07 h–1

Oxygen uptake

15

t3d (min)

The concentration of dissolved O2 (DO,%) was kept constant at 30% by changing the stirrer speed in bioreactor. The consumption of O2 was assessed by analysing the stirrer speed profiles during different growth or by measuring in situ (closing temporarily the air sparger) the decrease in DO% (Table 2). With exception of batch cultivation, for which no change in stirrer speed was observed, fed-batch and continuous cultures needed significant shifts in stirrer speed parameters (maximum values and standard deviation from average values) to maintain the required DO%, indicating O2 uptake during growth. The largest stirrer speed changes were observed in low D rate cultivations. Consistent with these results, the measurements carried out in situ confirmed greater O2 consumption (lmol O2 g 1 of biomass relative to mmol l 1 of residual glucose) by slow-growing cells and to a lesser extent in those from batch and high D rate cultures. However, despite to the weak changes in stirrer speed, fed-batch cells had the highest capability of O2 utilization.

10 0·07 h–1_FB

0·17 h–1

5

0·31/h–1 0·58 h–1_batch

0 0·0

0·1

0·2

0·3

0·4

0·5

0·6

Dilution rate (h–1) Figure 2 Relationship between t3D values (time to reach 3-log-cycle reduction; estimated with the Weibull model, van Boekel 2002) and dilution or maximum specific growth rates (lmax, h 1) of batch, fedbatch and steady-state cells of Lactobacillus plantarum C17 grown under respiratory promoting conditions (air 02 v/v per min, with 25 lg ml 1 hemin and 1 lg ml 1 menaquinone supplementation). The continuous line was plotted using distance weighted least squares (DWLS) smoothing.

Stress tolerance Thermal inactivation The kinetics of thermal inactivation were estimated with the Weibull model, which provided a good fit for most cultivations (R2 ranging from to 090 to 099). Weibull modelling showed that exponential growth in batch culture and high D rate cultivations significantly (P < 0005) impaired heat survival decreasing the time to reach 3-log-cycle reduction (t3D; Fig. 2). Fed-batch cells and slow-growing cells (D rates of 0041 and 007 h 1) exhibited the greatest heat stress tolerance, with a time of log-cycle reduction higher than that estimated for the fast-growing (031 and 017 h 1; t3-D increase from 15 to 4 times) and batch (t3-D increase from 9 to 17 times) cells. As shown in Fig. 2, t3-D values were inversely correlated with growth rates (i.e. the higher the growth rate, the lower the survival), and positively correlated with catalase and NPR activities. A square root transformation of t3-D provided the best fit with specific growth rate (R2 = 079). Tolerance of oxidative stress The resistance to H2O2 was significantly improved in fed-batch and slow-growing (Table 2), in agreement with the higher values of catalase and NPR activities detected in these cultures. Additionally, the number of survivors revealed a satisfactory tolerance to menadione (up to

0075 mmol l 1 in fed-batch and low D rates of 0041 and 007 h 1), with a significant correlation (r = 090) between specific growth rate and survival, even if Lact. plantarum lacks the sod gene (encoding for the antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase). NPR activity showed a significant correlation with tolerance of H2O2 (r = 087) and menadione (r = 095). Tolerance of freezing and freeze-drying Culture conditions, type of preservation treatment (freezing vs freeze-drying) and interaction all had a significant effect (P < 0001) on survival. The slowest-growing cells (D = 0041 h 1) exhibited the highest survival to freezing ( 1; Brooijmans et al. 2009b) of respiratory pathway when cultivated in WMB with hemin and menaquinone supplementation. The inability of most mutants to shift towards respiratory metabolism may explain the phenotypic advantage (first screening; Fig. 4) observed in the mutants obtained from anaerobic precultures. With exception of C17-m56 mutant, respiratory phenotypes were evident after 24 h of incubation. Several mutants showed an increased biomass production, compared with wt strain (Fig. 5b), in both growth conditions and times


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The mutants C17-m19 (higher biomass under respiratory conditions) and C17-m58 (higher biomass in both conditions) were selected to carry out a growth experiment in the presence of glucose and maltose (a non-PTS sugar for which the repression of pox genes by CcpA is not observed; Lorquet et al. 2004). Results are shown in Table 3. Both mutants were more competitive than the wild-type in terms of growth rate and biomass production, especially when cultivated on maltose and under respiratory conditions. Differences in biomass were more evident after 24 h of incubation and the mutant C17-m58 exhibited the highest level of biomass. In the presence of maltose, even if the biomass was higher, a significant increase in pH was observed, suggesting a greater shift towards the aerobic/respiratory metabolism.

(a) 1·03 S2

S3 wt

pH ratio (RS/AN)

1·02

wt

1·01

1·00

S1 0·99 0·7

S4 0·8

0·9

1·0

1·1

OD ratio (RS/AN) (b) 1·15

Biomass ratio (mutant/wt), RS

S2

m19

Discussion S3

m58

1·10

1·05

1·00

wt

0·95 S1 0·90 0·90

S4 0·95 1·00 1·05 1·10 Biomass ratio (mutant/wt), AN

1·15

Figure 5 Panel (b) Distribution of 20 selected mutants and their wildtype (wt) strain Lactobacillus plantarum C17 cultivated for 16 h (grey circles) and 24 h (black triangles) under anaerobic (AN; static screwcap tubes) and respiratory (RS) promoting conditions (shaking buffled flasks, in presence of 25 lg ml 1 hemin and 1 lg ml 1 menaquinone); the ratios of OD650 nm (OD ratio RS/AN) and pH (pH ratio RS/ AN) values measured in both growth conditions are plotted; graph was divided into 4 sections by dashed lines to better represent the possible respiratory strains (both OD and pH ratios higher than 1). Panel (b) Comparison between the 20 selected mutants and the wt strain on the basis of biomass production (Biomass ratio, mutant/wt) after 16 h (grey circles) and 24 h (black triangles) of incubation under anaerobic (AN) and respiratory (RS) promoting conditions. Plot was divided into 4 sections by dashed lines since “Biomass ratio” >1 indicates the capability to grow better than the wt strain.

of incubation (section S3 of the graph), while others only in anaerobiosis (section S2) or in the presence of O2 and cofactors (section S4).

We studied, for the first time, growth, enzymatic activities, metabolite production and stress tolerance of a Lact. plantarum strain grown under controlled respiratory conditions in batch, fed-batch and continuous culture. Although aeration and supplementation with heme and menaquinone did result in significant oxygen consumption and in a relatively low lactic acid yield especially under some conditions, little or no acetic acid was produced. Shift towards aerobic metabolism in the absence of supplementation with heme or menaquinone generally results in Lact. plantarum in the conversion of pyruvate into acetate via pyruvate oxidase (POX) and acetate kinase (ACK) activities (Goffin et al. 2006; Quatravaux et al. 2006). However, as demonstrated in a previous study (Zotta et al. 2013), POX activity was significantly affected by temperature (being active only at 25°C, in vitro assay), justifying the limited or null production of acetic acid (in vivo). The loss of POX stability at temperatures beyond 32°C was demonstrated by Risse et al. (1992), and Tittmann et al. (1998) showed that the activation of the ternary complex FAD-thiamine-pyruvate oxidase is favoured by low temperature (more at 10°C compared to 25°C). In this study, we observed that POX and NPR (which promotes the degradation of H2O2 with water formation using NADH+H+ as a donor; Quatravaux et al. 2006) were similarly regulated by oxygen and temperature, while NOX activity (which leads the oxidation of NADH+H+ generating H2O2; Quatravaux et al. 2006) was not necessarily related to aerobic growth and temperature. In this study, the activity of enzymes, which use NADH as a cofactor, NOX and NPR, was positively correlated with low growth rate, while POX activity was mainly detected in fast-growing cells, when significant amounts of residual glucose were still available, in contrast with the previous observations about carbon


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Table 3 Growth parameters of Lactobacillus plantarum C17 (wild-type) and its mutants C17-m19 and C17-m58 under static (anaerobiosis) and shaking (aerobiosis promoting respiration) conditions 8h Strains

Growth condition

Sugar

lmax (h 1)

C17 (wild-type)

AN

GLU MAL GLU MAL GLU MAL GLU MAL GLU MAL GLU MAL

054 053 049 052 053 052 061 053 058 050 060 055

RS C17-m19 (mutant)

AN RS

C17-m58 (mutant)

AN RS

002 001 002 002 002 001 002 002 001 001 001 001

24 h X (g l 1)

pH 419 430 423 433 414 425 418 427 417 429 418 429

001 001 001 004 000 001 000 001 000 000 001 001

160 182 134 158 174 193 149 173 177 192 157 180

002 000 008 001 004 001 003 000 003 001 002 002

X (g l 1)

pH 414 412 449 470 412 412 452 472 411 415 449 471

002 000 000 001 000 001 000 002 001 001 002 001

159 170 143 252 164 199 185 241 173 196 179 274

002 000 008 001 004 001 003 000 003 001 002 002

Mean valuesstandard error are shown. lmax = maximum specific growth rate, estimate standard error. Growth condition: AN = anaerobiosis, cultivation in screw-cap tubes filled with buffered WMB containing 01 mol l 1 MOPS, initial pH 65; RS = aerobiosis promoting respiration (shaking in buffled flasks with buffered WMB pH 65, containing 25 lg ml 1 haemin and 1 lg ml 1 menaquinone). Sugar: GLU, glucose (10 g l 1); MAL, maltose (10 g l 1). X = net production of biomass (Xt–X0: Xt is the final biomass, X0 is the initial biomass).

catabolite repression of pox gene (Lorquet et al. 2004). Stevens et al. (2008), also, found that poxF gene could be expressed in exponential phase (when sugar are not limiting for the growth), suggesting that other factors should be taken in account in the regulation of oxygen pathway and/or that the control of aerobic metabolism is strainspecific. Metabolism via POX–ACK activities generates H2O2 and CO2, while NOX activity generates H2O2. In this study, H2O2 was detected at low concentration only in batch supernatants (exponential growth phase), because of catalase activity in the other growth conditions and/or of low POX activity. Previously, Guidone et al. (2013a) and Zotta et al. (2013) demonstrated that Lact. plantarum C17 was unable to produce the enzyme under anaerobic (without oxygen and heme supplementation) or nonsupplemented aerobic (with oxygen but without heme supplementation) cultivation, confirming the presence of a heme-dependent catalase (Abriouel et al. 2004) in this strain. Although limited or no POX activity was found (in vitro test), a significant O2 consumption was measured in chemostat cultures, suggesting that the O2 uptake was mainly related to respiratory pathway (functionality of cytochrome oxidase and activation of ET chain). Fedbatch and cultivation at low D rates increased O2 uptake by respiratory cells. The nutrient depletion that occurs during slow-growing conditions, presumably, induces the cells to a greater demand for energy supply that may be satisfied through the extra ATP generation (Pedersen 640

et al. 2012) resulting from the activation of ET chain, which in turn stimulates the consumption of O2 as electron acceptor. Among the stress conditions to which LAB are subjected, oxidative stress is one of the most significant for the ecological, technological and health-related implications. Oxidative damage is mainly related to the presence of oxygen; using a range of flavin-dependent oxidases, in fact, LAB can produce reactive oxygen species (ROS; hydrogen peroxide H2O2, superoxide anion O2 , hydroxyl radical ˙OH), which are toxic to cell structures, resulting in the breaking of peptide bonds, depolymerization of nucleic acids, oxidation of membrane lipids, polysaccharides and fatty acids. To overcome the noxious effects of oxygen and ROS, some LAB have developed defence systems mainly based on the synthesis of antioxidant enzymes, such superoxide dismutase, catalase, peroxidases and oxidases (Casselin et al. 2011). H2O2 is also known to be mutagenic in Lact. plantarum (Machielsen et al. 2010). Our results show that, in Lact. plantarum, respiratory pathway and low growth rate cultivation significantly alleviate oxidative stress, compared with batch and high growth rate continuous cultivations, and that this is correlated with NPR activity and, to a lesser extent, with catalase. Respiration and limited carbon supply, favouring O2 elimination by activation of ET chain, reduce ROS generation and protect cells from harmful conditions. This evidence was supported by the findings of Rezaiki et al. (2004) who demonstrated an increased oxidative


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stress tolerance in a sod gene mutant of Lc. lactis under respiratory state and, more recently, by Watanabe et al. (2012a) who reported the positive effect of respiration on the survival to H2O2 of Lact. plantarum WCFS1. The sensitivity of Lact. plantarum C17 to heat, freezethaw and freeze-drying stresses was also affected by specific growth rate, suggesting that slow-growing conditions or nutrient depletion lead to stationary phase-like state, which improve general stress response (GSR), activating the induction of cross-protection mechanisms (van de Guchte et al. 2002; Zangh et al. 2011). Freeze-drying, compared with freezing, has proved to be the most effective storage method for slow-growing cells, probably because of increased production of detoxifying enzymes (catalase, NPR) in these cultures, which may alleviate oxidative stresses during freeze-drying and during recovery of freeze-dried cells and may contribute to the survival of heat-stressed cells by relieving oxidative damage (van de Guchte et al. 2002; Zangh et al. 2011). Therefore, combining slow growth cultivations and respiratory pathway, it is possible to achieve high-cell-density cultures suitable for starter development and long-term storage. A further purpose of this study was to enhance the robustness of Lact. plantarum C17 by natural selection based on oxidative stress tolerance and therefore 60 spontaneous mutants obtained during respiratory growth in continuous cultures were compared with the wild-type strain for their growth response and resistance to oxidative conditions. The best growing and tolerant strains derived from fed-batch and low D rate cultures; additionally and surprisingly, most of them were obtained in the presence of menadione as a selective agent. Although H2O2 is known to be a strong mutagenic agent in Lact. plantarum, it is unlikely that it contributed to random mutations during continuous cultivation, because it was undetectable because of high catalase activity. We therefore conclude that prolonged growth under respiratory conditions may select for mutants with improved fitness under aerobic conditions. The result was very interesting because the growth via respiration and limited cell-carbon supply could greatly improve the tolerance of superoxide anions in this important species, which lacks the sod gene in the genome. Archibald and Fridovich (1981) showed that aerobic cells of Lact. plantarum use an alternative mechanism to scavenge superoxide free radicals by accumulating high levels of intracellular manganese; successively, Watanabe et al. (2012b) confirmed the important role of manganese in preventing oxidative stress in respiratory cultures of Lact. plantarum WCFS1. Probably, Lact. plantarum C17 mutants adopted a similar defence system because the colonies exposed to high concentrations of ROS generators had an unusual silvery appearance.


The mutants C17-m19 (isolated from fed-batch culture, in the presence of menadione) and C17-m58 (isolated from lowest D rate culture, in the presence of menadione) with the best performances were tested to verify the role of different carbon sources in the activation of aerobic metabolism. As suggested by Lorquet et al. (2004), shift towards aerobic pathway is favoured by the presence of maltose compared with glucose. The non-PTS sugar supplementation also reduced acidification under anaerobic cultivation (early stationary growth phase) promoting biomass production in both wild-type and mutant strains, suggesting its use as a carbon source for high-cell-density production. This work confirms that, in Lact. plantarum, respiration and low growth rates confer physiological advantages under unfavourable conditions. However, some aspects on the regulation and metabolic pathway of respiratory growth in this species still need to be clarified. The main questions are related to the regulation and activation of POX enzyme, because our results suggest that carbon catabolite repression, aeration and the presence of H2O2 are not the only factors affecting the growth via respiration, and the implication of temperature could be also possible. Additionally, the production of acetate as distinctive trait of the aerobic metabolism is controversial because oxygen utilization in Lact. plantarum is strain-specific (Guidone et al. 2013a) and the system POX–ACK is not similarly active in strains with different physiological properties; moreover, significant amount of acetate could be also detected in anaerobic cultures, as product of lactate-independent pathways, making difficult the discrimination between the two types of metabolism. Our strategy of natural selection may be a tool of practical relevance: the mutants generated in this study, in fact, have improved growth and oxidative stress tolerance compared with the wild-type strain C17, although the nature of the mutations resulting in the improved phenotype is not clear. Because no selectable markers were used as in site-directed mutagenesis with integrative plasmids or transposons (Bron et al. 2004; H€ ufner et al. 2007; Perpetuini et al. 2013; Sasikumar et al. 2013), the identification of the mutations would require whole-genome sequencing of the mutants and of the wild-type, which is beyond the scope of this work. The mutant C17-m58 has been selected for further comparative studies (chemostat cultivation in defined composition medium) to clarify some metabolic aspects about respiration in Lact. plantarum. Finally, because within the European Union the use of genetically modified LAB (GM-LAB) in food production is not yet fully applied and accepted either by legislation and consumers (Sybesma et al. 2006), the induction of spontaneous mutations by natural events (although


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generates uncontrolled and unknown gene modifications) represents a food-grade selection strategy. Acknowledgements This work was partly funded by Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Universita e della Ricerca, Rome, Italy, PRIN n. 359 20088SZB9B. Conflict of interest No conflict of interest declared. References Abriouel, H., Herrmann, A., St€arke, J., Yousif, N.M.K., Wijaya, A., Tauscher, B., Holzapfel, W. and Franz, C.M.A.P. (2004) Cloning and heterologous expression of hematin dependent catalase produced by Lactobacillus plantarum CNRZ 1228. Appl Environ Microbiol 70, 603–606. Archibald, F.S. and Fridovich, I. (1981) Manganese and defenses against oxygen toxicity in Lactobacillus plantarum. J Bacteriol 145, 442–451. van Boekel, M.A. (2002) On the use of the Weibull model to describe thermal inactivation of microbial vegetative cells. Int J Food Microbiol 74, 139–159. Bron, P.A., Grangette, C., Mercenier, A., de Vos, W.M. and Kleerebezem, M. (2004) Identification of Lactobacillus plantarum genes that are induced in the gastrointestinal tract of mice. J Bacteriol 186, 5721–5729. Brooijmans, R.J.W., de Vos, W.M. and Hugenholtz, J. (2009a) Lactobacillus plantarum electron transport chain. Appl Environ Microbiol 75, 3580–3585. Brooijmans, R.J.W., Smit, B., Santos, F., van Riel, J., de Vos, W.M. and Hugenholtz, J. (2009b) Heme and menaquinone induced electron transport in lactic acid bacteria. Microb Cell Fact 8, 28. Callewaert, R. and De Vuyst, L. (2000) Bacteriocin production with Lactobacillus amylovorus DCE471 is improved and stabilized by fed-batch fermentation. Appl Environ Microbiol 66, 606–613. Casselin, B., Derre-Bobillot, A., Fernandez, A., Lamberet, G., Lechardeur, D., Yamamoto, Y., Pedersen, M.B., Garrigues, C. et al. (2011) Responses of lactic acid bacteria to oxidative stress. Chapter 6, In Stress Responses in Lactic Acid Bacteria, eds Tsakalidou, E. and Papadimitriou, K. pp. 111–127. New York, NY: Springer; doi: 10.1007/ 978-0-387-92771-8. Castro, L.P., Bernardez, P.F., Guerra, N.P., Guseva, E.V. and Fick, M. (2007) Fed-batch pediocin production on whey using different feeding media. Enzym Microb Technol 41, 397–406. Ciocia, F., McSweeney, P.L.H., Piraino, P. and Parente, E. (2013) Use of dairy and non-dairy Lactobacillus

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oxidase from Lactobacillus plantarum: dissection of the stabilizing effects of coenzyme binding and subunit interaction. Protein Sci 1, 1699–1709. Sasikumar, P., Gomathi, S., Anbazhagan, K. and Selvam, G.S. (2013) Secretion of biologically active heterologous oxalate decarboxylase (OxdC) in Lactobacillus plantarum WCFS1 using homologous signal peptides. Biomed Res Int 2013 (2013), 280432. Stevens, M.J.A., Wiersma, A., de Vos, W.M., Kuipers, O.P., Smid, E.J., Molenaar, D. and Kleerebezem, M. (2008) Improvement of Lactobacillus plantarum aerobic growth as directed by comprehensive transcriptome analysis. Appl Environ Microbiol 74, 4776–4778. Sybesma, W., Hugenholtz, J., de Vos, W.M. and Smid, E.J. (2006) Safe use of genetically modified lactic acid bacteria in food. Bridging the gap between consumers, green groups, and industry. Electron J Biotechnol 9, 424–448. Tittmann, K., Proske, D., Spinka, M., Ghisla, S., Rudolph, R., H€ ubner, G. and Kern, G. (1998) Activation of thiamin diphosphate and FAD in the phosphate-dependent pyruvate oxidase from Lactobacillus plantarum. J Biol Chem 273, 12929–12934. Tseng, C. and Montville, T.J. (1992) Enzymatic regulation of glucose catabolism by Lactobacillus plantarum in an aerobic chemostat. Biotechnol Prog 8, 126–131. Watanabe, M., van der Veen, S., Nakajima, H. and Abee, T. (2012a) Effect of respiration and manganese on oxidative stress resistance of Lactobacillus plantarum WCFS1. Microbiology 158, 293–300. Watanabe, M., van der Veen, S. and Abee, T. (2012b) Impact of respiration on resistance of Lactobacillus plantarum WCFS1 to acid stress. Appl Environ Microbiol 78, 4062–4064. Zangh, J., Chongde, W., Xue, F., Guocheng, D. and Chen, G. (2011) Stress response in Lactococcus lactis. Chapter 10, In Stress Responses in Lactic Acid Bacteria, eds Tsakalidou, E. and Papadimitriou, K. pp. 199–218. New York, NY: Springer; doi: 10.1007/978-0-387-92771-8. Zotta, T., Ricciardi, A., Guidone, A., Sacco, M., Muscariello, L., Mazzeo, M.F., Cacace, G. and Parente, E. (2012) Inactivation of ccpA and aeration affect growth, metabolite production and stress tolerance Lactobacillus plantarum WCFS1. Int J Food Microbiol 155, 51–59. Zotta, T., Guidone, A., Ianniello, R.G., Parente, E. and Ricciardi, A. (2013) Temperature and respiration affect the growth and stress resistance of Lactobacillus plantarum C17. J Appl Microbiol 115, 848–858.


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Small molecule immunomodulins from cultures of the human microbiome member Lactobacillus plantarum.

Inoculated fermentation of green olives with potential probiotic Lactobacillus pentosus and Lactobacillus plantarum starter cultures isolated from industrially fermented olives.

Modified chemically defined medium for enhanced respiratory growth of Lactobacillus casei and Lactobacillus plantarum groups.

Identification of Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus pentosus and Lactobacillus fermentum from honey stomach of honeybee.

Biodiversity of Lactobacillus plantarum from traditional Italian wines.

Lipid activation of undecaprenyl pyrophosphate synthetase from Lactobacillus plantarum.

Isolation, extraction, and measurement of acetylcholine from Lactobacillus plantarum.

Probiotic Characteristics of Lactobacillus plantarum FH185 Isolated from Human Feces.

Properties of a membrane-bound cardiolipin synthetase from Lactobacillus plantarum.

Artificial oxidative stress-tolerant Corynebacterium glutamicum.

Fermentation of brined turnip roots using Lactobacillus plantarum and Leuconostoc mesenteroides starter cultures.

Multiple Genome Sequences of Lactobacillus plantarum Strains.

Draft Genome Sequence of Lactobacillus plantarum 2025.

Draft Genome Sequence of Lactobacillus plantarum 2165.

Performance of stress resistant variants of Listeria monocytogenes in mixed species biofilms with Lactobacillus plantarum.

Cold stress improves the ability of Lactobacillus plantarum L67 to survive freezing.

Proteomic profiling of the acid stress response in Lactobacillus plantarum 423.

Investigation of Factors Affecting Aerobic and Respiratory Growth in the Oxygen-Tolerant Strain Lactobacillus casei N87.

Selection for NaCl tolerance in cell cultures of Medicago sativa and recovery of plants from a NaCl-tolerant cell line.

Characterization of a new bacteriocin from Lactobacillus plantarum LE5 and LE27 isolated from ensiled corn.

Melibiose transport system in Lactobacillus plantarum.

Purification and characterization of antifungal compounds from Lactobacillus plantarum HD1 isolated from kimchi.

Oral intake of heat-killed Lactobacillus plantarum L-137 decreases the incidence of upper respiratory tract infection in healthy subjects with high levels of psychological stress.

Protective role of Lactobacillus plantarum A7 against irinotecan-induced genotoxicity.