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Improved acid-stress tolerance of Lactococcus lactis NZ9000 and Escherichia coli BL21 by overexpression of the anti-acid component recT

  • Genetics and Molecular Biology of Industrial Organisms - Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology

Abstract

Acid accumulation caused by carbon metabolism severely affects the fermentation performance of microbial cells. Here, different sources of the recT gene involved in homologous recombination were functionally overexpressed in Lactococcus lactis NZ9000 and Escherichia coli BL21, and their acid-stress tolerances were investigated. Our results showed that L. lactis NZ9000 (ERecT and LRecT) strains showed 1.4- and 10.4-fold higher survival rates against lactic acid (pH 4.0), respectively, and that E. coli BL21 (ERecT) showed 16.7- and 9.4-fold higher survival rates than the control strain against lactic acid (pH 3.8) for 40 and 60 min, respectively. Additionally, we found that recT overexpression in L. lactis NZ9000 improved their growth under acid-stress conditions, as well as increased salt- and ethanol-stress tolerance and intracellular ATP concentrations in L. lactis NZ9000. These findings demonstrated the efficacy of recT overexpression for enhancing acid-stress tolerance and provided a promising strategy for insertion of anti-acid components in different hosts.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31470160), the project of Integration of Industry, Education and Research of Jiangsu Province, China (BY2016022-39), the grant from Pioneer Innovative Research Team of Dezhou, Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University (No. IRT_15R26), the Program of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities (No. 111-2-06), and the Open Project of Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University (KLIB-KF201706).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Road, Wuxi, 214122, Jiangsu, China

    Zhengming Zhu, Xiaomei Ji & Juan Zhang

  2. The Key Laboratory of Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Road, Wuxi, 214122, Jiangsu, China

    Zhimeng Wu & Guocheng Du

  3. School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Road, Wuxi, 214122, Jiangsu, China

    Zhengming Zhu, Xiaomei Ji, Zhimeng Wu, Juan Zhang & Guocheng Du

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  1. Zhengming Zhu
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  2. Xiaomei Ji
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Correspondence to Zhimeng Wu or Juan Zhang.

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Zhu, Z., Ji, X., Wu, Z. et al. Improved acid-stress tolerance of Lactococcus lactis NZ9000 and Escherichia coli BL21 by overexpression of the anti-acid component recT. J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol 45, 1091–1101 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10295-018-2075-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10295-018-2075-8

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