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Responses of Lactic Acid Bacteria to Heat Stress

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Stress Responses of Lactic Acid Bacteria

Part of the book series: Food Microbiology and Food Safety ((FMFS))

Abstract

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB), like other living cells, need to adjust their physiology to cope with heat stress. Commonly, bacteria respond to a sudden increase in temperature by rapid changes in gene expression that increase the levels of a set of proteins called heat-shock proteins (HSPs). The two most common classes of HSPs are molecular chaperones (which refold denatured proteins) and energy-dependent proteases (which proteolytically dispose of denatured proteins). Although HSPs are universally conserved, the mechanisms behind their regulated expression exhibit considerable variation. Much of our current understanding of bacterial heat-stress-response gene-regulation mechanisms is derived from the Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis model systems. Here we discuss specific aspects of the heat-shock response and its regulation in LAB and Bifidobacteria, with a focus on mechanistic studies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, 66, 00014, Helsinki, Finland

    Pekka Varmanen & Kirsi Savijoki

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  1. Pekka Varmanen
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  2. Kirsi Savijoki
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Correspondence to Pekka Varmanen .

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  1. Laboratory of Dairy Research, Department of Food Science and Technolog, Agricultural University of Athens, Iera Odos 75, Athens, 118 55, Greece

    Effie Tsakalidou

  2. Laboratory of Dairy Research, Department of Food Science and Technolog, Agricultural University of Athens, Iera Odos 75, Athens, 188 55, Greece

    Konstantinos Papadimitriou

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Varmanen, P., Savijoki, K. (2011). Responses of Lactic Acid Bacteria to Heat Stress. In: Tsakalidou, E., Papadimitriou, K. (eds) Stress Responses of Lactic Acid Bacteria. Food Microbiology and Food Safety. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-92771-8_3

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