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Recent research on 3-phenyllactic acid, a broad-spectrum antimicrobial compound

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Abstract

3-Phenyllactic acid (PLA), which is an organic acid widely existing in honey and lactic acid bacteria fermented food, can be produced by many microorganisms, especially lactic acid bacteria. It was proved as an ideal antimicrobial compound with broad and effective antimicrobial activity against both bacteria and fungi. In addition, it could be used as feed additives to replace antibiotics in livestock feeds. This article presented a review of recent studies on the existing resource, antimicrobial activity, and measurement of PLA. In addition, microorganism strains and dehydrogenases producing PLA were reviewed in detail, the metabolic pathway and regulation of PLA synthesis in LAB strains were discussed, and high-level bioproduction of PLA by microorganism fermentation was also summarized.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the 973 Project (No. 2012CB720802), the 863 Project (No. 2011AA100904), the Natural Science Foundation of China Project (No. 31171705), and the Support Project of Jiangsu Province (No. BE2011622, BE2011766, BE2010678, and BE2010626).

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu, 214122, China

    Wanmeng Mu, Shuhuai Yu, Lanjun Zhu, Tao Zhang & Bo Jiang

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  1. Wanmeng Mu
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  2. Shuhuai Yu
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  4. Tao Zhang
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Correspondence to Wanmeng Mu.

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Mu, W., Yu, S., Zhu, L. et al. Recent research on 3-phenyllactic acid, a broad-spectrum antimicrobial compound. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 95, 1155–1163 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-012-4269-8

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