Open AccessRelationship between the presence of the citrate permease plasmid and high electron‐donor surface properties of Lactococcus lactis ssp. lactis biovar. diacetylactis
Author(s) -
Lý Mai Hu'o'ng,
Cavin JeanFrançois,
Cachon Rémy,
Lê Thanh Mai,
Belin JeanMarc,
Waché Yves
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
fems microbiology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1574-6968
pISSN - 0378-1097
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6968.2006.00570.x
Subject(s) - lactococcus lactis , permease , biovar , electron donor , strain (injury) , microbiology and biotechnology , diacetyl , chemistry , plasmid , biology , biochemistry , bacteria , lactic acid , catalysis , dna , mutant , genetics , anatomy , gene
Some strains of Lactococcus lactis subspecies possess a citrate permease that enables them to utilize citrate and to produce diacetyl. Such strains are classified as diacetylactis biovariants ( L. lactis ssp. lactis biovar. diacetylactis). We investigated the electron‐donor surface properties of L. lactis strains and observed that the diacetylactis biovariants presented increased adhesion to electron‐acceptor solvents (microbial adhesion to solvents electron‐donor characteristics of cells of <27% for L. lactis and about 50% for L. lactis ssp. lactis biovar diacetylactis). We investigated the properties of a pCitP− derivative and observed for a diacetylactis biovariant strain a loss of the electron‐donor characteristics falling from 47% for a pCitP+ strain to 8% for its pCitP− derivative. This suggests that the presence of high electron‐donor characteristics on the surface of L. lactis results to a large extent from the presence of the citrate permease plasmid.