Production of conjugated linoleic acids by Lactobacillus plantarum strains isolated from naturally fermented Chinese pickles.

Naturally fermented pickles harbour many lactic acid bacteria (LAB). Forty-three LAB strains with conjugated linoleic acid (CLA)-producing ability were isolated from three naturally fermented pickle brines. Of these isolates, lp15 identified as Lactobacillus plantarum by API 50 CHL system and full-length 16S rDNA sequence analysis exhibited the highest CLA-producing ability (26.

A food-grade industrial arming yeast expressing beta-1,3-1,4-glucanase with enhanced thermal stability.

The aim of this work was to construct a novel food-grade industrial arming yeast displaying beta-1,3-1,4-glucanase and to evaluate the thermal stability of the glucanase for practical application. For this purpose, a bi-directional vector containing galactokinase (GAL1) and phosphoglycerate kinase 1 (PGK1) promoters in different orientations was constructed. The beta-1,3-1,4-glucanase gene from Bacillus subtilis was fused to alpha-agglutinin and expressed under the control of the GAL1 promoter.

Study on swelling model and thermodynamic structure of native konjac glucomannan.

We investigated the higher structure of konjac glucomannan (KGM) in the amorphous state and solution using a laser particle size analyzer and a water activity meter. The results show that the thermodynamic structures of native KGM were primarily composed of the lamella structure units, which involve both granular crystalline and amorphous regions, and that the connection zones of such units contained both loose and tight aggregation regions. The value of surface tension (sigma) of native KGM, resting with the density of its hydroxyl groups' self-association, was an important parameter to analyze the higher structures of native KGM in the thermodynamic swelling model of native KGM.