Abstract
BackgroundBacteriocins produced by lactic acid bacteria (LAB) attract considerable interest as natural and nontoxic food preservatives and as therapeutics whereas the bacteriocin-producing LAB are considered potential probiotics for food, human and veterinary applications, and in the animal production field. Within LAB the lactobacilli are increasingly used as starter cultures for food preservation and as probiotics. The lactobacilli are also natural inhabitants of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and attractive vectors for delivery of therapeutic peptides and proteins, and for production of bioactive peptides. Research efforts for production of bacteriocins in heterologous hosts should be performed if the use of bacteriocins and the LAB bacteriocin-producers is ever to meet the high expectations deposited in these antimicrobial peptides. The recombinant production and functional expression of bacteriocins by lactobacilli would have an additive effect on their probiotic functionality.ResultsThe heterologous production of the bacteriocin enterocin A (EntA) was evaluated in different Lactobacillus spp. after fusion of the versatile Sec-dependent signal peptide (SPusp45) to mature EntA plus the EntA immunity gene (entA + entiA) (fragment UAI), and their cloning into plasmid vectors that permitted their inducible (pSIP409 and pSIP411) or constitutive (pMG36c) production. The amount, antimicrobial activity (AA) and specific antimicrobial activity (SAA) of the EntA produced by Lactobacillus sakei Lb790, Lb. plantarum NC8 and Lb. casei CECT475 transformed with the recombinant plasmids pSIP409UAI, pSIP411UAI and pMGUAI varied depending of the expression vector and the host strain. The Lb. casei CECT475 recombinant strains produced the largest amounts of EntA, with the highest AA and SAA. Supernatants from Lb. casei CECT (pSIP411UAI) showed a 4.9-fold higher production of EntA with a 22.8-fold higher AA and 4.7-fold higher SAA than those from Enterococcus faecium T136, the natural producer of EntA. Moreover, supernatants from Lb. casei CECT475 (pSIP411UAI) showed a 15.7- to 59.2-fold higher AA against Listeria spp. than those from E. faecium T136.ConclusionLb. casei CECT457 (pSIP411UAI) may be considered a promising recombinant host and cell factory for the production and functional expression of the antilisterial bacteriocin EntA.
Highlights
Bacteriocins produced by lactic acid bacteria (LAB) attract considerable interest as natural and nontoxic food preservatives and as therapeutics whereas the bacteriocin-producing LAB are considered potential probiotics for food, human and veterinary applications, and in the animal production field
Cloning of the lactococcal signal peptide from protein Usp45 (SPusp45) fused to mature enterocin A (entA) (EntA) and enterocin A (entA) and immunity (entiA) (EntI) into plasmids pSIP409, pSIP411 and pMG36c resulted in the plasmid derived vectors pSIP409UAI, pSIP411UAI and pMGUAI, respectively
Transformation of Lb. sakei Lb790, Lb. plantarum NC8 and Lb. casei CECT475 with plasmids pSIP409UAI, pSIP411UAI and pMGUAI yielded recombinant Lactobacillus spp.-derived strains which were further checked by bacteriocinogenicity tests, PCR and sequencing of the inserts
Summary
Bacteriocins produced by lactic acid bacteria (LAB) attract considerable interest as natural and nontoxic food preservatives and as therapeutics whereas the bacteriocin-producing LAB are considered potential probiotics for food, human and veterinary applications, and in the animal production field. Bacteriocins are ribosomally synthesized antimicrobial peptides secreted by bacteria, and those produced by LAB attract considerable interest as natural and nontoxic food preservatives, for human and veterinary applications, and in the animal production field [9, 10]. Most bacteriocins, including those produced by enterococci and named enterocins are synthesized as biologically inactive precursors or prepeptides containing an N-terminal extension of the so-called double-glycine type (leader sequence) that is cleaved concomitantly with export across the cytoplasmic membrane by dedicated ATP-binding cassette transporters (ABC transporters) and their accessory proteins [11]. Additional subgroups have been suggested for leaderless peptides, circular bacteriocins, linear peptides derived from large proteins, and the glycosylated bacteriocins [15]
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