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Journal of Bacteriology, June 2003, p. 3297-3306, Vol. 185, No. 11
0021-9193/03/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JB.185.11.3297-3306.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
and James L. Steele2*
Department of Bacteriology,1 Department of Food Science, University of WisconsinMadison, Madison, Wisconsin 537062
Received 23 July 2002/ Accepted 7 March 2003
To evaluate the contribution of intracellular peptidases to the growth of the 14-amino-acid (aa) auxotroph Lactobacillus helveticus CNRZ32, single- and multiple-peptidase-deletion mutants were constructed. Two broad-specificity aminopeptidases (PepC and PepN) and X-prolyl dipeptidyl aminopeptidase (PepX) were inactivated through successive cycles of chromosomal gene replacement mutagenesis. The inactivation of all three peptidases in JLS247 (
pepC
pepN
pepX) did not affect the growth rate in amino acid-defined medium. However, the peptidase mutants generally had decreased specific growth rates when acquisition of amino acids required hydrolysis of the proteins in milk, the most significant result being a 73% increase in generation time for JLS247. The growth rate deficiencies in milk were overcome by amino acid supplements with some specificity to each of the peptidase mutants. For example, milk supplementation with Pro resulted in the most significant growth rate increase for
pepX strains and a 7-aa supplement (Asn, Cys, Ile, Pro, Ser, Thr, and Val) resulted in a JLS247 growth rate indistinguishable from that of the wild type. Our results show that characterization of the activities of the broad-specificity aminopeptidases had little predictive value regarding the amino acid supplements found to enhance the milk growth rates of the peptidase mutant strains. These results represent the first determination of the physiological roles with respect to specific amino acid requirements for peptidase mutants grown in milk.
Present address: Clinical Research Department, Marshfield Medical Research Foundation, Marshfield, WI 54449.
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