Abstract
Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are microorganisms widely used in the fermented food industry worldwide. Certain LAB are able to produce exopolysaccharides (EPS) either attached to the cell wall (capsular EPS) or released to the extracellular environment (EPS). According to their composition, LAB may synthesize heteropolysaccharides or homopolysaccharides. A wide diversity of EPS are produced by LAB concerning their monomer composition, molecular mass, and structure. Although EPS-producing LAB strains have been traditionally applied in the manufacture of dairy products such as fermented milks and yogurts, their use in the elaboration of low-fat cheeses, diverse type of sourdough breads, and certain beverages are some of the novel applications of these polymers. This work aims to collect the most relevant issues of the former reviews concerning the monomer composition, structure, and yields and biosynthetic enzymes of EPS from LAB; to describe the recently characterized EPS and to present the application of both EPS-producing strains and their polymers in the fermented (specifically beverages and cereal-based) food industry.
Highlights
Since ancient times lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have been empirically exploited as starter cultures to improve the preservation, nutritional value, and sensorial characteristics of a variety of fermented foods and products derived from animal and vegetable origins (Wood and Holzapfel, 1995; Wood, 1997; Leroy and De Vuyst, 2004)
Information published by Ruas-Madiedo and de los Reyes-Gavilán (2005) and Badel et al (2011) was omitted in this Table to avoid overlapping. &molar mass (MM), molecular mass expressed in Daltons; GOS, gluco-oligosaccharides. ∗FITR, fourier transform infrared; 1H NMR and 13C NMR, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopic; SEM, scanning electron microscopy; SEC, size-exclusion chromatography; Multi-Angle Laser Light Scattering (MALLS), multiangle laser light scattering; HPAEC-PAD: high performance anion exchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection; DLS, dynamic light scattering
More than 45 different repeating units have been described by NMR spectroscopy (De Vuyst et al, 2001; Broadbent et al, 2003; Ruas-Madiedo et al, 2009a), mostly of these corresponding to EPS synthesized by Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and a few by bifidobacteria strains (Ruas-Madiedo et al, 2012)
Summary
Since ancient times lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have been empirically exploited as starter cultures to improve the preservation, nutritional value, and sensorial characteristics of a variety of fermented foods and products derived from animal and vegetable origins (Wood and Holzapfel, 1995; Wood, 1997; Leroy and De Vuyst, 2004). Due to their long history of safe use in human consumption, some LAB strains have the Qualified Presumption of Safety (QPS) or Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) status (EFSA, 2010) In addition to their main feature, which is lactic acid production from the carbon source present in the matrix where they grow, several LAB strains form other compounds such as vitamins, bioactive peptides, antibacterial compounds, aroma compounds, low-calorie sugars, exopolysaccharides (EPS), etc. All these traits confer desirable attributes to specific fermented foods and products (Hugenholtz, 2008; LeBlanc et al, 2013; Ortiz et al, 2013). Efforts have been made to use LAB as microbial cell factories for the production of industrially interesting metabolites either to be used as purified compounds or to be produced in situ in fermented foods (Hugenholtz, 2008; Gaspar et al, 2013; Boguta et al, 2014)
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