Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2010 Dec;76(23):7775-84.
doi: 10.1128/AEM.01122-10. Epub 2010 Oct 1.

Mixed-culture transcriptome analysis reveals the molecular basis of mixed-culture growth in Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus

Affiliations

Mixed-culture transcriptome analysis reveals the molecular basis of mixed-culture growth in Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus

Sander Sieuwerts et al. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2010 Dec.

Abstract

Many food fermentations are performed using mixed cultures of lactic acid bacteria. Interactions between strains are of key importance for the performance of these fermentations. Yogurt fermentation by Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus (basonym, Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus) is one of the best-described mixed-culture fermentations. These species are believed to stimulate each other's growth by the exchange of metabolites such as folic acid and carbon dioxide. Recently, postgenomic studies revealed that an upregulation of biosynthesis pathways for nucleotides and sulfur-containing amino acids is part of the global physiological response to mixed-culture growth in S. thermophilus, but an in-depth molecular analysis of mixed-culture growth of both strains remains to be established. We report here the application of mixed-culture transcriptome profiling and a systematic analysis of the effect of interaction-related compounds on growth, which allowed us to unravel the molecular responses associated with batch mixed-culture growth in milk of S. thermophilus CNRZ1066 and L. bulgaricus ATCC BAA-365. The results indicate that interactions between these bacteria are primarily related to purine, amino acid, and long-chain fatty acid metabolism. The results support a model in which formic acid, folic acid, and fatty acids are provided by S. thermophilus. Proteolysis by L. bulgaricus supplies both strains with amino acids but is insufficient to meet the biosynthetic demands for sulfur and branched-chain amino acids, as becomes clear from the upregulation of genes associated with these amino acids in mixed culture. Moreover, genes involved in iron uptake in S. thermophilus are affected by mixed-culture growth, and genes coding for exopolysaccharide production were upregulated in both organisms in mixed culture compared to monocultures. The confirmation of previously identified responses in S. thermophilus using a different strain combination demonstrates their generic value. In addition, the postgenomic analysis of the responses of L. bulgaricus to mixed-culture growth allows a deeper understanding of the ecology and interactions of this important industrial food fermentation process.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIG. 1.
FIG. 1.
Growth and acidification of monocultures and mixed cultures grown in 10% reconstituted skim milk at 42°C. (A) CFU per ml of S. thermophilus in monoculture (▪) and mixed culture (□) and L. bulgaricus in monoculture (▴) and mixed culture (▵), and the OD600 of the mixed culture (○). Error bars indicate the standard deviations of triplicate measurements. Gray and white boxes indicate the five distinct growth phases of the mixed culture. Arrows indicate sampling points for transcription profiling. (B) pH (black lines) and acidification (mM lactic acid/h) (gray lines) of typical milk fermentations of S. thermophilus (dashed lines), L. bulgaricus (dotted lines), and the mixed culture (solid lines). In the S. thermophilus and mixed culture, the two exponential phases display a maximal acidification rate (1st and 2nd max). In between, at the transition phase at t = 4.5 h, there is a point at which the acidification rate drops almost to zero.

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Baldi, P., and A. D. Long. 2001. A Bayesian framework for the analysis of microarray expression data: regularized t-test and statistical inferences of gene changes. Bioinformatics 17:509-519. - PubMed
    1. Bolotin, A., B. Quinquis, P. Renault, A. Sorokin, S. D. Ehrlich, S. Kulakauskas, A. Lapidus, E. Goltsman, M. Mazur, G. D. Pusch, M. Fonstein, R. Overbeek, N. Kyprides, B. Purnelle, D. Prozzi, K. Ngui, D. Masuy, F. Hancy, S. Burteau, M. Boutry, J. Delcour, A. Goffeau, and P. Hols. 2004. Complete sequence and comparative genome analysis of the dairy bacterium Streptococcus thermophilus. Nat. Biotechnol. 22:1554-1558. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bringel, F., and J. C. Hubert. 2003. Extent of genetic lesions of the arginine and pyrimidine biosynthetic pathways in Lactobacillus plantarum, L. paraplantarum, L. pentosus, and L. casei: prevalence of CO2-dependent auxotrophs and characterization of deficient arg genes in L. plantarum. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 69:2674-2683. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Broadbent, J. R., D. J. McMahon, D. L. Welker, C. J. Oberg, and S. Moineau. 2003. Biochemistry, genetics, and applications of exopolysaccharide production in Streptococcus thermophilus: a review. J. Dairy Sci. 86:407-423. - PubMed
    1. Brouwer, R. W., S. A. F. T. van Hijum, and O. P. Kuipers. 2009. MINOMICS: visualizing prokaryote transcriptomics and proteomics data in a genomic context. Bioinformatics 25:139-140. - PubMed

MeSH terms

Associated data