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Lactococcus lactis encounters 3 environmental stimuli, H + , lactate, and undissociated lactic acid, because of the accumulation of lactic acid-the predominant fermentation product. Few studies have examined how these stimuli synergistically affect the bacteria. Herein, we analyzed the dissociation degree of lactic acid at different pH and investigated the cellular response to cross-stress in L. lactis ssp. lactis F44 through quantitative proteomic analysis using isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation of 3 groups: 0% lactic acid with pH 4.0 and 0% lactic acid with pH 5.0 for acid stress; 2% lactic acid with pH 7.0 and 3% lactic acid with pH 7.0 for lactate stress; and 2% lactic acid with pH 4.0, 2% lactic acid with pH 5.0, 3% lactic acid with pH 4.0, and 3% lactic acid with pH 5.0 for cross-stress. We observed that the metabolisms of carbohydrate and energy were inhibited, which might be due to the feedback inhibition of lactic acid. The arginine deiminase pathway was improved to maintain the stability of intracellular pH. Additionally, some differentially expressed genes associated with the general stress response, amino acid metabolism, cell wall synthesis, and regulatory systems played significant roles in stress response. Overall, we highlighted the response mechanisms to lactic acid stress and provided a new opportunity for constructing robust industrial strains., (Copyright © 2018 American Dairy Science Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: To engineer a small nonconding RNA anti41 to enhance nisin yield by inhibiting the expression of glnR in Lactococcus lactis F44., Results: We constructed a screening library to determine appropriate artificial sRNAs and obtained a sRNA anti41 that can produce approximately three fold of the inhibitory effect on GlnR. Moreover, the transcription levels of the direct inhibitory targets of GlnR (glnP, glnQ, amtB, and glnK) were dramatically upregulated in the anti41 overexpression strain (F44-anti41), thereby confirming the inhibitory effect of anti41 on GlnR. In addition, anti41 overexpression improved the survival rate of cells by approximately three fold under acid stress, promoted cell growth, and increased nisin yield by 29.83%., Conclusions: We were able to provide a novel strategy for the construction of robust high-producing industrial strains.

To overcome the adverse impacts of environmental stresses during growth, different adaptive regulation mechanisms can be activated in Lactococcus lactis In this study, the transcription levels of eight transcriptional regulators of L. lactis subsp. lactis F44 under acid stress were analyzed using quantitative reverse transcription-PCR. Eight gene-overexpressing strains were then constructed to examine their influences on acid-resistant capability. Overexpressing ythA , a PspC family transcriptional regulator, increased the survival rate by 3.2-fold compared to the control at the lethal pH 3.0 acid shock. Moreover, the nisin yield was increased by 45.50%. The ythA -overexpressing strain FythA appeared to have higher intracellular pH stability and nisin-resistant ability. Subsequently, transcriptome analysis revealed that the vast majority of genes associated with amino acid biosynthesis, including arginine, serine, phenylalanine, and tyrosine, were predominantly upregulated in FythA. Arginine biosynthesis ( argG and argH ), arginine deiminase pathway, and polar amino acid transport ( ysfE and ysfF ) were proposed to be the main regulation mechanisms of YthA. Furthermore, the transcription of genes associated with pyrimidine and exopolysaccharide biosynthesis were upregulated. The transcriptional levels of nisIPRKFEG genes were substantially higher in FythA, which directly contributed to the yield and resistance of nisin. Three potential DNA-binding sequences were predicted by computer analysis using the upstream regions of genes with prominent changes. This study showed that YthA could increase acid resistance and nisin yield and revealed a putative regulation mechanism of YthA. IMPORTANCE Nisin, produced by Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis , is widely used as a safe food preservative. Acid stress becomes the primary restrictive factor of cell growth and nisin yield. In this research, we found that the transcriptional regulator YthA was conducive to enhancing the acid resistance of L. lactis F44. Overexpressing ythA could significantly improve the survival rate and nisin yield. The stability of intracellular pH and nisin resistance were also increased. Transcriptome analysis showed that nisin immunity and the biosynthesis of some amino acids, pyrimidine, and exopolysaccharides were enhanced in the engineered strain. This study elucidates the regulation mechanism of YthA and provides a novel strategy for constructing robust industrial L. lactis strains., (Copyright © 2018 American Society for Microbiology.)