Carbohydrate utilization affects Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. lactis 313 cell-enveloped-associated proteinase production

The effect of different sugars (glucose, glycerol, maltose, galactose and lactose) on cell-membrane-associated proteinase production by Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. lactis 313 (LDL 313) was investigated. The experimental results showed that aside glycerol and galactose, all the other sugars supported high growth levels of LDL 313, with glucose displaying the maximum biomass concentration of 0.85 mg/mL dry cell weight for cells harvested at the mid-exponential phase of ∼12 h after inoculation. The specific proteinase yield, a measure of the rate of proteinase production relative to cell wall biosynthesis, was used to evaluate the preferential degree of proteinase metabolism as induced by the consumption of different sugar substrates by LDL 313. It was found that maltose displayed the highest specific proteinase yield of 12.59 U/mg sugar consumed. Further, molecular differences were observed in the SDS electrophoretic profile of cell surface proteins generated for the different carbon substrates. This is a preliminary study which supports the inference that different sugars stimulate the production of different cell-surface proteins with a significant effect on cell proteinase activity.