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Responses of Lactic Acid Bacteria to Acid 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) are a diverse group of Gram-positive microbes that ferment carbohydrates to organic acids, primarily lactic acid. LAB include organisms vitally important to the production of foods, bread, and wine, and they include major human pathogens for diseases of the oropharyneal space, lungs, mouth, and skin. For all of these organs, the production of lactic acid rapidly and substantially lowers the pH of their external environments. Because bacterial membranes are essentially porous to protons, these bacteria are at risk of damaging cellular constituents to the extent that growth ceases, and eventually they do not survive. Thus, the LAB have evolved a broad range of mechanisms to protect themselves from acidification, to repair cellular damage, and to use low-pH environments to outcompete other bacteria. In this chapter, we describe the acid-stress-responsive mechanisms of representative LAB, which have provided a framework of how these organisms respond to, and prosper in, acidic environments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Oral Biology, University of Rochester, School of Medicine and Dentistry, 601 Elmwood Avenue, 611, Rochester, NY, 14580, USA

    Jessica K. Kajfasz

  2. Center for Oral Biology, University of Rochester, School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY, 14580, USA

    Robert G. Quivey Jr.

  3. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Rochester, School of Medicine and Dentistry, 601 Elmwood Avenue, 611, Rochester, NY, 14580, USA

    Robert G. Quivey Jr.

Authors
  1. Jessica K. Kajfasz
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  2. Robert G. Quivey Jr.
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Correspondence to Robert G. Quivey Jr. .

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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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Kajfasz, J.K., Quivey, R.G. (2011). Responses of Lactic Acid Bacteria to Acid 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_2

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