Engineering the central pathways in Lactococcus lactis: functional expression of the phosphofructokinase (pfk) and alternative oxidase (aox1) genes from Aspergillus niger in Lactococcus lactis facilitates improved carbon conversion rates under oxidizing conditions.

The present work describes a novel central pathway engineering method that has been designed with the aim to increase the carbon conversion rates under oxidizing conditions in L. lactis fermentations. The nisin producer L.

Cloning and functional expression of the mitochondrial alternative oxidase gene (aox1) of Aspergillus niger in Lactococcus lactis and its induction by oxidizing conditions.

Lactococcus lactis is a widely used food bacterium mainly known for its fermentation metabolism. An important, and for long time overlooked, trait of this species is its ability to perform respiratory metabolism in the presence of heme and under aerobic conditions. There is no evidence however for the presence of an alternative respiration pathway and AOX activity.

Lactococcus lactis as a cell factory: a twofold increase in phosphofructokinase activity results in a proportional increase in specific rates of glucose uptake and lactate formation.

Despite the fact that the area of glycolysis in Lactococcus lactis has been intensively studied, only a limited number of studies have been focused on the regulation of uptake of glucose itself. Using the tool of the glucostat fed-batch mode of culture, it was demonstrated in our earlier work that the concentration of glucose regulates its uptake rate and that the control of the glycolytic flux resides to a large extent in processes outside the pathway itself, like glucose transport and the ATP consuming reactions, while allosteric properties of key enzymes like phosphofructokinase (PFK) have a significant influence on the control. Extending our work, we report here the results of fermentations with engineered L.

Glycolysis and the regulation of glucose transport in Lactococcus lactis spp. lactis in batch and fed-batch culture.

Background: Despite the fact that many reports deal with glycolysis in Lactococcus lactis, there is not much information on the regulation of uptake of glucose itself. The aim of the present work was to investigate the effect of the glucose level on its specific uptake rate.

Results: Studies on aeration levels in pH controlled L.

High efficiency electrotransformation of Lactococcus lactis spp. lactis cells pretreated with lithium acetate and dithiothreitol.

Background: A goal for the food industry has always been to improve strains of Lactococcus lactis and stabilize beneficial traits. Genetic engineering is used extensively for manipulating this lactic acid bacterium, while electropolation is the most widely used technique for introducing foreign DNA into cells. The efficiency of electrotransformation depends on the level of electropermealization and pretreatment with chemicals which alter cell wall permeability, resulting in improved transformation efficiencies is rather common practice in bacteria as in yeasts and fungi.

Determination of bacteriocin activity with bioassays carried out on solid and liquid substrates: assessing the factor "indicator microorganism".

Background: Successful application of growth inhibition techniques for quantitative determination of bacteriocins relies on the sensitivity of the applied indicator microorganism to the bacteriocin to which is exposed. However, information on indicator microorganisms' performance and comparisons in bacteriocin determination with bioassays is almost non-existing in the literature. The aim of the present work was to evaluate the parameter "indicator microorganism" in bioassays carried out on solid -agar diffusion assay- and liquid -turbidometric assay- substrates, applied in the quantification of the most studied bacteriocin nisin.