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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, August 2007, p. 5268-5275, Vol. 73, No. 16
0099-2240/07/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/AEM.02787-06
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, and School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, People's Republic of China,1 Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, People's Republic of China,2 Wageningen Centre for Food Sciences, Kluyver Centre for Genomics of Industrial Fermentation, and NIZO food research, 6710 BA Ede, The Netherlands,3 Laboratory of Tea Biochemistry & Biotechnology, Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Education, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, People's Republic of China4
Received 29 November 2006/ Accepted 19 June 2007
Previously we showed that glutathione (GSH) can protect Lactococcus lactis against oxidative stress (Y. Li et al., Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 69:5739-5745, 2003). In the present study, we show that the GSH imported by L. lactis subsp. cremoris SK11 or produced by engineered L. lactis subsp. cremoris NZ9000 can protect both strains against a long-term mild acid challenge (pH 4.0) and a short-term severe acid challenge (pH 2.5). This shows for the first time that GSH can protect a gram-positive bacterium against acid stress. During acid challenge, strain SK11 containing imported GSH and strain NZ9000 containing self-produced GSH exhibited significantly higher intracellular pHs than the control. Furthermore, strain SK11 containing imported GSH had a significantly higher activity of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase than the control. These results suggest that the acid stress resistance of starter culture can be improved by selecting L. lactis strains capable of producing or importing GSH.
Published ahead of print on 29 June 2007.
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