The use ofLactobacillus plantarumesterase genes: a biotechnological strategy to increase the bioavailability of dietary phenolic compounds in lactic acid bacteria

Abstract

In Lactobacillus plantarum the metabolism of hydroxybenzoic and hydroxycinnamic acid derivatives follows a similar two-step pathway, an esterase action followed by a decarboxylation. The L. plantarum esterase genes involved in these reactions have been cloned into pNZ8048 or pT1NX plasmids and transformed into technologically relevant lactic acid bacteria. None of the strains assayed can hydrolyse methyl gallate, a hydroxybenzoic ester. The presence of the L. plantarum tannase encoding genes (tanA Lp or tanB Lp ) on these bacteria conferred their detectable esterase (tannase) activity. Similarly, on hydroxycinnamic compounds, esterase activity for the hydrolysis of ferulic acid was acquired by lactic acid bacteria when L. plantarum esterase (JDM1_1092) was present. This study showed that the heterologous expression of L. plantarum esterase genes involved in the metabolism of phenolic acids allowed the production of healthy compounds which increase the bioavailability of these dietary compounds in food relevant lactic acid bacteria.

Conversion of (poly)phenolic compounds in food fermentations by lactic acid bacteria: Novel insights into metabolic pathways and functional metabolites

“…Most studies rely on quantification of a decrease in concentration of specific compounds with corresponding increase in expected metabolites. Many strains, however, encode for multiple esterases or glycosyl hydrolases with complementary or overlapping substrate specificities ( Gaur, 2022 ; Landete et al, 2021 ; Theilmann et al, 2017 ), which makes the unambiguous assignment of genotype to phenotype challenging or impossible. Only few studies used isogenic mutants to confirm the activity of specific enzymes in food fermentations ( Gaur, 2022 ; Gaur et al, 2023 ) and data on the expression of genes in complex food substrates remains scarce.…”

Selection of Lactiplantibacillus Strains for the Production of Fermented Table Olives

“…plantarum , gallate decarboxylase may be involved in the decarboxylation of both gallic acid and protocatechuic acid, and tannase (a specific class of esterase) may also exert this function [ 70 ]. Actually, it was demonstrated that the sequential action of esterase and decarboxylases drives the proper degradation of hydroxybenzoic (tannase/gallate decarboxylase) and hydroxycinnamic (esterase/phenolic acid decarboxylase) acids [ 18 ]. Tannase was investigated in several strains of Lpb .…”

“…plantarum strains and, to a lesser extent, in Lpb. pentosus [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ], although this species is frequently isolated and associated with olives and their derived products [ 5 , 13 ].…”

Antifungal activity of selected lactic acid bacteria from olive drupes

“…Also caffeic acid, vanillic acid and vanillin were mentioned as phenolic acids with antifungal activity (Elansary et al, 2019; Fitzgerald et al, 2005; Li et al, 2022). The presence of hydroxycinnamic acids, p-coumaric, caffeic acid and ferulic acid is correlated to the capacity of L. plantarum to metabolize these phenolic compounds (Landete et al, 2021) while the lower level of acetophenone in CFSs, compared to the control samples, was probably correlated to the reduced potential of LABs to produce chiral alcohols (Baydş et al, 2020). Interestingly, all CFSs produced decanal, a compound of the aldehyde class.…”