Phenolic compounds are important constituents of food products of plant origin. These compounds are directly related to sensory characteristics of foods such as flavour, astringency, and colour. In addition, the presence of phenolic compounds on the diet is beneficial to health due to their chemopreventive activities against carcinogenesis and mutagenesis, mainly due to their antioxidant activities. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are autochthonous microbiota of raw vegetables. To get desirable properties on fermented plant-derived food products, LAB has to be adapted to the characteristics of the plant raw materials where phenolic compounds are abundant. Lactobacillus plantarum is the commercial starter most frequently used in the fermentation of food products of plant origin. However, scarce information is still available on the influence of phenolic compounds on the growth and viability of L. plantarum and other LAB species. Moreover, metabolic pathways of biosynthesis or degradation of phenolic compounds in LAB have not been completely described. Results obtained in L. plantarum showed that L. plantarum was able to degrade some food phenolic compounds giving compounds influencing food aroma as well as compounds presenting increased antioxidant activity. Recently, several L. plantarum proteins involved in the metabolism of phenolic compounds have been genetically and biochemically characterized. The aim of this review is to give a complete and updated overview of the current knowledge among LAB and food phenolics interaction, which could facilitate the possible application of selected bacteria or their enzymes in the elaboration of food products with improved characteristics.

The bacterial thermoalkalophilic lipases that hydrolyze saturated fatty acids at 60 -75°C and pH 8 -10 are grouped as the lipase family I.5. We report here the crystal structure of the lipase from Geobacillus thermocatenulatus, the first structure of a member of the lipase family I.5 showing an open configuration. Unexpectedly, enzyme activation involves large structural rearrangements of around 70 amino acids and the concerted movement of two lids, the ␣6-and ␣7-helices, unmasking the active site. Central in the restructuring process of the lids are both the transfer of bulky hydrophobic residues out of the N-terminal end of the ␣6-helix and the incorporation of short side chain residues to the ␣6 C-terminal end. All these structural changes are stabilized by the Zn 2؉ -binding domain, which is characteristic of this family of lipases. Two detergent molecules are placed in the active site, mimicking chains of the triglyceride substrate, demonstrating the position of the oxyanion hole and the three pockets that accommodate the sn-1, sn-2, and sn-3 fatty acids chains. The combination of structural and biochemical studies indicate that the lid opening is not mediated by temperature but triggered by interaction with lipid substrate.

The DNA region encoding the mature form of a pneumococcal murein hydrolase (LytB) was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. LytB was purified by affinity chromatography, and its activity was suggested to be the first identified endo-␤-N-acetylglucosaminidase of Streptococcus pneumoniae. LytB can remove a maximum of only 25% of the radioactivity from [ 3 H]choline-labeled pneumococcal cell walls in in vitro assays. Inactivation of the lytB gene of wild-type strain R6 (R6B mutant) led to the formation of long chains but did not affect either total cell wall hydrolytic activity at the stationary phase of growth or development of genetic competence. Longer chains were formed when the lytB mutation was introduced into the M31 strain (M31B mutant), which harbors a complete deletion of lytA, which codes for the major autolysin. Furthermore, the use of this mutant revealed that LytB is the first nonautolytic murein hydrolase of pneumococcus. Purified LytB added to pneumococcal cultures of R6B or M31B was capable of dispersing, in a dose-dependent manner, the long chains characteristic of these mutants into diplococci or short chains, the typical morphology of R6 and M31 strains, respectively. In vitro acetylation of purified pneumococcal cell walls did not affect the activity of LytB, whereas that of the LytA amidase was drastically reduced. On the other hand, the use of a translational fusion between the gene (gfp) coding for the green fluorescent protein (GFP) and lytB supports the notion that LytB accumulates in the cell poles of either the wild-type R6, lytB mutants, or ethanolamine-containing cells (EA cells). The GFP-LytB fusion protein was also able to unchain the lytB mutants but not the EA cells. In contrast, translational fusion protein GFP-LytA preferentially bound to the equatorial regions of cholinecontaining cells but did not affect their average chain length. These observations suggest the existence of specific receptors for LytB that are positioned at the polar region on the pneumococcal surface, allowing localized peptidoglycan hydrolysis and separation of the daughter cells.

Tyramine poisoning is caused by the ingestion of food containing high levels of tyramine, a biogenic amine. Any food containing free tyrosine are subject to tyramine formation if poor sanitation and low quality foods are used or if the food is subject to temperature abuse or extended storage time. Tyramine is generated by decarboxylation of the tyrosine trough tyrosine decarboxylase (TDC) enzymes derived from the bacteria present in the food. Bacterial TDC have been only unequivocally identified and characterized in Gram-positive bacteria, especially in lactic acid bacteria. Pyridoxal phosphate (PLP)-dependent TDC encoding genes (tyrDC) appeared flanking by a similar genetic organization in several especies of lactic acid bacteria, suggesting a common origin by a single mobile genetic element. Bacterial TDC are also able to decarboxylate phenylalanine to produce phenylethylamine (PEA), another biogenic amine. The molecular knowledge of the genes involved in tyramine production has lead to the development of molecular methods for the detection of bacteria able to produce tyramine and PEA. These rapid and simple methods could be used for the analysis of the ability to form tyramine by bacteria in order to evaluate the potential risk of tyramine biosynthesis in food products.

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In bio‐redox cascade reactions that are immobilized on porous supports, mass‐transfer limitations may impede the effective concentration of the cofactor around the corresponding dehydrogenases. This main drawback has been addressed by the co‐immobilization of both the main and recycling dehydrogenases. Herein, we report tailor‐made co‐immobilization procedures to assemble three different bio‐redox orthogonal cascades in vitro (two selective reductions and one selective oxidation) with in situ cofactor‐regeneration. However, the co‐immobilization itself does not guarantee the success of the biotransformation because the same co‐immobilization chemistry may not be suitable for the two enzymes that are involved in the bio‐redox cascade. Therefore, our co‐immobilization system was optimized for each bi‐enzymatic cascade. In all cases, the optimized co‐immobilization procedure was more efficient in the biocatalytic cascade than if the two dehydrogenases were immobilized on two different carriers. In one specific case (one thermophilic cascade), the co‐immobilization of an optimal ratio of main/recycling dehydrogenases (1:5) on the same carrier resulted in a biocatalyst that was able to recycle NADH up to 9000 times per equivalent of substrate in 1 hour at 55 °C. Moreover, uniform distributions of both dehydrogenases across the porous surface also enhanced the recycling efficiency of the cofactor 1.5‐fold versus cascades in which the enzymes were not uniformly distributed across the same porous surface, presumably because of vicinal cooperation effects. Hence, this system for the co‐immobilization of bi‐enzymatic systems may be extended to other biocatalytic cascades, thereby opening a window for the optimization of other multi‐enzyme biotransformations in which cofactor‐recycling is necessary.

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