Abstract
Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are considered as the main biogenic amine (BA) producers in fermented foods. These compounds derive from amino acid decarboxylation through microbial activities and can cause toxic effects on humans, with symptoms (headache, heart palpitations, vomiting, diarrhea) depending also on individual sensitivity. Many studies have focused on the aminobiogenic potential of LAB associated with fermented foods, taking into consideration the conditions affecting BA accumulation and enzymes/genes involved in the biosynthetic mechanisms. This review describes in detail the different LAB (used as starter cultures to improve technological and sensorial properties, as well as those naturally occurring during ripening or in spontaneous fermentations) able to produce BAs in model or in real systems. The groups considered were enterococci, lactobacilli, streptococci, lactococci, pediococci, oenococci and, as minor producers, LAB belonging to Leuconostoc and Weissella genus. A deeper knowledge of this issue is important because decarboxylase activities are often related to strains rather than to species or genera. Moreover, this information can help to improve the selection of strains for further applications as starter or bioprotective cultures, in order to obtain high quality foods with reduced BA content.
Highlights
Interdepartmental Center for Industrial Agri-Food Research, University of Bologna, 47521 Cesena, Italy; Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, University of Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy
Tyramine is often accumulated by enterococci in high amounts already during the late exponential growth, before stationary phase, suggesting that this decarboxylation activity is not necessarily a response to starvation or nutrient depletion, and no competition between sugar catabolism and amino acid decarboxylation was observed [15,17]. These latter authors tested the ability to accumulate tyramine and 2-phenylethylamine by two strains of E. faecalis and two strains E. faecium in two culture media added or not with tyrosine. They demonstrated that, all the tested enterococcal strains possessed a tyrosine decarboxylase (TDC) pathway, they differed in biogenic amine (BA) accumulation level and in the expression rate of tdc gene, underlining the extremely variable decarboxylating potential of strains belonging to the same species, suggesting strain-dependent implications in food safety
Curiel et al [224] studied the BA production capability by Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and enterobacteria isolated from fresh pork sausages and reported that all the tyramine-producer isolated strains were molecularly identified as C. divergens, whose abundance depended from the different packaging conditions
Summary
A large number of metabolites, exerting both beneficial and detrimental properties for human health, can be synthetized by microorganisms. Ingestion of food containing high BA amounts is a risk for consumer health since these compounds can cause headache, heart palpitations, vomiting, diarrhea and hypertensive crises [2,3,4] Their toxic effect depends on the type of BA, on individual sensitivity or allergy and on the consumption of monoaminooxidase inhibitory drugs or ethanol, which interact with aminooxidase enzymatic systems responsible for the detoxification process of exogenous BAs [5,6]. As far as other BAs, the presence of high level of 2-phenylethylamine, putrescine, cadaverine, agmatine, spermine and spermidine can lead to toxicity They can potentiate the effects of histamine and tyramine toxicity by inhibiting their metabolizing enzymes [10]. Del Rio et al [30] demonstrated that AgDI pathway promotes the growth of Lactococcus lactis after nutrient depletion
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