Adaptive evolution refines short-term citric acid stress responses in Lactiplantibacillus plantarum: Insights into enhanced acid tolerance

作者：Xie Han, Changzhi Shi, Wei Zhang, Zhen-Ming Lu, Li-Juan Chai, Hong-Yu Xu, Jin‐Song Shi, Xiaojuan Zhang, Zhenghong Xu · 发表于：LWT · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1016/j.lwt.2025.118148 · 被引用次数：5 · 研究领域：Probiotics and Fermented Foods、Microbial Metabolites in Food Biotechnology、Microbial Metabolic Engineering and Bioproduction

This study investigates how adaptive evolution reshapes short-term responses in L. plantarum under citric acid comparing ancestral and evolved strains. Using comparative transcriptomic and genomic analysis, we found both strains shared 84.7% of differentially expressed genes, including purine metabolism downregulation and aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis upregulation, to conserve energy and bolster protein synthesis. Shared responses also include regulation of cell cycle genes and protein export genes. Notably, the evolved strain 1260G exhibited significantly lower overall amplitude of gene expression changes compared to 1G, indicating more efficient metabolic regulation and resource allocation. This reflects the robustness of the evolved strain, which maintains essential functions with minimal changes in gene transcription. Evolved strains uniquely upregulated histidine metabolism for pH buffering, increased biofilm information, and upregulated pantothenate and CoA biosynthesis for boosted energy metabolism. Mutations in pyrG enhanced pyrimidine metabolism, while mutated fabI promoted membrane fluidity by directing C-flux to synthesis of unsaturated fatty acids. These genetic adjustments in evolved strain transformed less optimized stress responses into more optimized survival strategies, highlighting evolutionary optimization of metabolic networks and stress resilience. The findings advance microbial adaptation theory and guide engineering acid-tolerant strains for industrial fe...