Lactobacillus plantarum is a widespread member of the genus
LactobacillusLactobacillus is a genus of Gram-positive facultative anaerobic or microaerophilic bacteria. They are a major part of the lactic acid bacteria group, named as such because most of its members convert lactose and other sugars to lactic acid. They are common and usually benign...
, commonly found in many fermented food products as well as anaerobic plant matter. It is also present in
salivaSaliva is the watery and usually frothy substance produced in the mouths of humans and most other animals. Saliva is produced in and secreted from the salivary glands...
(from which it was first isolated). It has the ability to liquefy
gelatinGelatin is a translucent, colorless, odorless, brittle, nearly tasteless solid substance, derived from the collagen inside animals' skin and bones. It is commonly used as a gelling agent in food, pharmaceuticals, photography, and cosmetic manufacturing. Substances containing gelatin or functioning...
.
L. plantarum has one of the largest
genomeIn modern molecular biology the genome refers to all of its hereditary information encoded in DNA .The genome includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences of the DNA. The term was adapted in 1920 by Hans Winkler, Professor of Botany at the University of Hamburg, Germany...
s known among the
lactic acid bacteriaThe Lactic Acid Bacteria comprise a clade of Gram-positive, low-GC, acid-tolerant, generally non-sporulating, non-respiring rod or cocci that are associated by their common metabolic and physiological characteristics. These bacteria, usually found in decomposing plants and lactic products, produce...
and is a very flexible and versatile species.
L. plantarum is a
Gram-positiveGram-positive bacteria are those that are stained dark blue or violet by Gram staining. This is in contrast to Gram-negative bacteria, which cannot retain the crystal violet stain, instead taking up the counterstain and appearing red or pink...
aerotolerant bacteria that grows at but not at , and produces both isomers of
lactic acidLactic acid , also known as milk acid, is a chemical compound that plays a role in several biochemical processes. It was first isolated in 1780 by a Swedish chemist, Carl Wilhelm Scheele, and is a carboxylic acid with a chemical formula of C
3H
6O
3...
(
D and LDextrorotation and levorotation refer, respectively, to the properties of rotating plane polarized light clockwise or counterclockwise...
).
Lactobacillus plantarum is a widespread member of the genus
LactobacillusLactobacillus is a genus of Gram-positive facultative anaerobic or microaerophilic bacteria. They are a major part of the lactic acid bacteria group, named as such because most of its members convert lactose and other sugars to lactic acid. They are common and usually benign...
, commonly found in many fermented food products as well as anaerobic plant matter. It is also present in
salivaSaliva is the watery and usually frothy substance produced in the mouths of humans and most other animals. Saliva is produced in and secreted from the salivary glands...
(from which it was first isolated). It has the ability to liquefy
gelatinGelatin is a translucent, colorless, odorless, brittle, nearly tasteless solid substance, derived from the collagen inside animals' skin and bones. It is commonly used as a gelling agent in food, pharmaceuticals, photography, and cosmetic manufacturing. Substances containing gelatin or functioning...
.
L. plantarum has one of the largest
genomeIn modern molecular biology the genome refers to all of its hereditary information encoded in DNA .The genome includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences of the DNA. The term was adapted in 1920 by Hans Winkler, Professor of Botany at the University of Hamburg, Germany...
s known among the
lactic acid bacteriaThe Lactic Acid Bacteria comprise a clade of Gram-positive, low-GC, acid-tolerant, generally non-sporulating, non-respiring rod or cocci that are associated by their common metabolic and physiological characteristics. These bacteria, usually found in decomposing plants and lactic products, produce...
and is a very flexible and versatile species.
Metabolism
L. plantarum is a
Gram-positiveGram-positive bacteria are those that are stained dark blue or violet by Gram staining. This is in contrast to Gram-negative bacteria, which cannot retain the crystal violet stain, instead taking up the counterstain and appearing red or pink...
aerotolerant bacteria that grows at but not at , and produces both isomers of
lactic acidLactic acid , also known as milk acid, is a chemical compound that plays a role in several biochemical processes. It was first isolated in 1780 by a Swedish chemist, Carl Wilhelm Scheele, and is a carboxylic acid with a chemical formula of C
3H
6O
3...
(
D and LDextrorotation and levorotation refer, respectively, to the properties of rotating plane polarized light clockwise or counterclockwise...
). This species and related lactobacilli are unusual in that they can respire oxygen but have no respiratory chain or
cytochromeCytochromes are, in general, membrane-bound hemoproteins that contain heme groups and carry out electron transport.They are found either as monomeric proteins or as subunits of bigger enzymatic complexes that catalyze redox reactions...
s—the consumed oxygen ultimately ends up as
hydrogen peroxideHydrogen peroxide is a very pale blue liquid, slightly more viscous than water, that appears colorless in dilute solution. It is a weak acid, has strong oxidizing properties, and is a powerful bleaching agent. It is used as a disinfectant, antiseptic, oxidizer, and in rocketry as a propellant...
. The peroxide probably acts as a weapon to exclude competing bacteria from the food source. In place of the protective enzyme
superoxide dismutaseSuperoxide dismutases are a class of enzymes that catalyze the dismutation of superoxide into oxygen and hydrogen peroxide. As such, they are an important antioxidant defense in nearly all cells exposed to oxygen...
present in almost all other oxygen-tolerant cells, this organism accumulates millimolar quantities of manganese. Manganese is also used by
L. plantarum in a
pseudo-catalaseCatalase is a common enzyme found in nearly all living organisms which are exposed to oxygen, where it functions to catalyze the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide to water and oxygen...
to lower reactive oxygen levels. Because the chemistry by which manganese complexes protect the cells from oxygen damage is subverted by
ironIron is a metallic chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. Iron is a group 8 and period 4 element and is therefore classified as a transition metal. Iron and iron alloys are by far the most common metals and the most common ferromagnetic materials in everyday use...
, these cells contain virtually no iron atoms; in contrast, a cell of
Escherichia coliEscherichia coli , is a Gram negative bacterium that is commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms . Most E...
of comparable volume contains over one million iron atoms. Because of this
L. plantarum cannot be used to produce active enzymes that require a
heme complexA heme or haem is a prosthetic group that consists of an iron atom contained in the center of a large heterocyclic organic ring called a porphyrin...
such as true catalases.
Lactobacillus plantarum, like many lactobacillus species, can be cultured using
MRSOften abbreviated to MRS, this type of bacterial growth medium is so-named by its inventors: de Man, Rogosa and Sharpe. Developed in 1960, this medium was designed to favour the luxuriant growth of Lactobacilli for lab study...
media.
Silage
Lactobacillus plantarum is the most common bacterium used in
silageSilage is fermented, high-moisture fodder that can be fed to ruminants or used as a biofuel feedstock for anaerobic digesters. It is fermented and stored in a process called ensilage or silaging, and usually made from grass crops, including corn or sorghum or other cereals, using the entire green...
inoculants. During the anaerobic conditions of ensilage, these organisms quickly dominate the microbial population, and, within 48 hours, they begin to produce lactic and acetic acids via the
Embden-Meyerhof PathwayGlycolysis is the metabolic pathway that converts glucose, C
6H
12O
6, into pyruvate, C
3H
6O
3-...
, further diminishing their competition. Under these conditions,
L. plantarum strains producing high levels of heterologous proteins have been found to remain highly competitive. This quality could allow this species to be utilized as an effective biological pretreatment for lignocellulosic biomass.
Food Products
L. plantarum is commonly found in many fermented food products including
sauerkrautSauerkraut is finely shredded cabbage that has been fermented by various lactic acid bacteria, including Leuconostoc, Lactobacillus, and Pediococcus. It has a long shelf-life and a distinctive sour flavor, both of which result from the lactic acid that forms when the bacteria ferment the sugars in...
, pickles, brined olives, Korean kimchi, Nigerian ogi, sourdough and other fermented plant material, and also some cheeses fermented sausages and
stockfishStockfish is unsalted fish, especially cod, dried by sun and wind on wooden racks on the foreshore called flakes, or in special drying houses. The drying of food is the world's oldest known preservation method, and dried fish has a storage life of several years...
. The high levels of this organism in food also makes it an ideal candidate for the development of probiotics. In Juana Frias et al.(2008)'s study,
L. plantarum has been applied to reduce the allergenicity of soy flour. The result showed that, compared to other microbes,
L. plantarum-fermented soy flour showed the highest reduction in IgE immunoreactivity (96–99%), depending upon the sensitivity of the plasma used.
Therapeutics
The ability of
L. plantarum to survive in the human gastro-intestinal tract makes it a possible
in vivo delivery vehicle for therapeutic compounds or proteins.
Antimicrobial Property
The ability of
L. plantarum to produce antimicrobial substances which help them to survive in the gastro intestinal tract of human. The antimicrobial substances produced have shown significant effect on Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria.
Biochemistry
The entire
genomeIn modern molecular biology the genome refers to all of its hereditary information encoded in DNA .The genome includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences of the DNA. The term was adapted in 1920 by Hans Winkler, Professor of Botany at the University of Hamburg, Germany...
has recently been sequenced, and
promoterIn genetics, a promoter is a region of DNA that facilitates the transcription of a particular gene. Promoters are typically located near the genes they regulate, on the same strand and upstream .-Overview:...
libraries have been developed for both conditional and constitutive gene expression, adding to the utility of
L. plantarum. It is also commonly employed as the indicative organism in
niacinNiacin, also known as vitamin B
3 or nicotinic acid, is a water-soluble vitamin. It is an organic compound with the molecular formula C
6H
5NO
2. It is a derivative of pyridine, with a carboxyl group at the 3-position...
bioassayBioassay , or biological standardisation is a type of scientific experiment. Bioassays are essential in the development of new drugs, and in monitoring environmental pollutants....
experiments, particularly
AOAC InternationalAOAC International is a non-profit scientific association with headquarters in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA. It publishes standardised, chemical analysis methods designed to increase confidence in results of chemical and microbiologic analyses...
Official Method 944.13, as it is a niacin auxotroph.
External links
- PubMed a study of the use of Lactobacillus Plantarum 299v in treatment of IBS
- www.DocGuide.com another reference about IBS