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The activity of bacterial strains significantly influences the quality and the taste of vinegar. Previous studies of acetic acid bacteria have primarily focused on the ability of bacterial strains to produce high amounts of acetic acid. However, few studies have examined the production of gluconic acid during acetous fermentation at high temperatures. The production of vinegar at high temperatures by two strains of acetic acid bacteria isolated from apple and cactus fruits, namely AF01 and CV01, respectively, was evaluated in this study. The simultaneous production of gluconic and acetic acids was also examined in this study. Biochemical and molecular identification based on a 16s rDNA sequence analysis confirmed that these strains can be classified as Acetobacter pasteurianus. To assess the ability of the isolated strains to grow and produce acetic acid and gluconic acid at high temperatures, a semi-continuous fermentation was performed in a 20-L bioreactor. The two strains abundantly grew at a high temperature (41 C). At the end of the fermentation, the AF01 and CV01 strains yielded acetic acid concentrations of 7.64% (w/v) and 10.08% (w/v), respectively. Interestingly, CV01 was able to simultaneously produce acetic and gluconic acids during acetic fermentation, whereas AF01 mainly produced acetic acid. In addition, CV01 was less sensitive to ethanol depletion during semi-continuous fermentation. Finally, the enzymatic study showed that the two strains exhibited high ADH and ALDH enzyme activity at 38 C compared with the mesophilic reference strain LMG 1632, which was significantly susceptible to thermal inactivation.

Downstream processes have great influences on bacterial starter production. Different modifications occur to cellular compounds during freeze-drying process and storage of bacterial starters. Consequently, viability and culturability (multiplication capacity) undergo some changes. In this study, the effects of freeze-drying process and storage conditions were examined on cell envelope integrity, respiration and culturability of <em>Acetobacter senegalensis</em>. Freezing of cells protected with mannitol (20% w/w) did not affect cell multiplication and respiration considerably; however, 19% of cells showed compromised cell envelope after freezing. After drying, 1.96&times;10¹¹ CFU/g were enumerated, indicating that about 34% of the cells could survive and keep their culturability. Drying of the cells induced further leakage in cell envelope and finally 81% of cells appeared as injured ones; however, 87% of the dried cells maintained their respiration capacity. Storage temperature had significant effect on cell multiplication ability; higher storage temperature (35&deg;C) caused 8.59-log reduction in cell culturability after nine-month period of storage. Collapse of cell envelop integrity and respiration was observed at 35&deg;C. At lower storage temperature (4&deg;C), the culturability decreased about one-log reduction after nine months. Cell envelope integrity was subjected to minor changes during a period of nine month-storage at 4&deg;C whereas a heterogeneous population of cells with different respiration capacity emerged at 4&deg;C. These results indicate that a major part of cells undergone drying process and storage entered into viable but non-culturable state. In addition, usage of different culture media didn&rsquo;t improve resuscitation. Besides, it seems that sub-lethal damages to cell envelope caused uptake of propidium iodide, however these kinds of injuries could not impress cell multiplications and respiration.

Much research has been conducted about different types of fermentation at high temperature, but only a few of them have studied cell viability changes during high-temperature fermentation. In this study, Acetobacter senegalensis, a thermo-tolerant strain, was used for gluconic acid production at 38 °C. The influences of different carbon sources and physicochemical conditions on cell viability and the resuscitation of viable but nonculturable (VBNC) cells formed during fermentation were studied. Based on the obtained results, A. senegalensis could oxidize 95 g l glucose to gluconate at 38 °C (pH 5.5, yield 83%). However, despite the availability of carbon and nitrogen sources, the specific rates of glucose consumption (q) and gluconate production (q) reduced progressively. Interestingly, gradual q and q reduction coincided with gradual decrease in cellular dehydrogenase activity, cell envelope integrity, and cell culturability as well as with the formation of VBNC cells. Entry of cells into VBNC state during stationary phase partly stemmed from high fermentation temperature and long-term oxidation of glucose, because just about 48% of VBNC cells formed during stationary phase were resuscitated by supplementing the culture medium with an alternative favorite carbon source (low concentration of ethanol) and/or reducing incubation temperature to 30 °C. This indicates that ethanol, as a favorable carbon source, supports the repair of stressed cells. Since formation of VBNC cells is often inevitable during high-temperature fermentation, using an alternative carbon source together with changing physicochemical conditions may enable the resuscitation of VBNC cells and their use for several production cycles.

Acetic acid bacteria are very vulnerable to environmental changes; hence, they should get acclimated to different kinds of stresses when they undergo downstream processing. In the present study, Acetobacter senegalensis LMG 23690 T , a thermo-tolerant strain, was acclimated sequentially to different carbon sources including glucose (condition Glc), a mixture of glucose and ethanol (condition EtOH) and a mixture of glucose and acetic acid (condition GlcAA). Then, the effects of acclimation on the cell proteome profiles and some phenotypic characteristics such as growth in culture medium containing ethanol, and tolerance to freeze-drying process were evaluated. Based on the obtained results, despite the cells acclimated to Glc or EtOH conditions, 86% of acclimated cells to GlcAA condition were culturable and resumed growth with a short lag phase in a culture medium containing ethanol and acetic acid. Interestingly, if A. senegalensis LMG 23690 T had been acclimated to condition GlcAA, 92% of cells exhibited active cellular dehydrogenases, and 59% of cells were culturable after freeze-drying process. Proteome profiles comparison by 2D-DiGE and MS analysis, revealed distinct physiological status between cells exposed to different acclimation treatments, possibly explaining the resulting diversity in phenotypic characteristics. Results of proteome analysis by 2D-DiGE also showed similarities between the differentially expressed proteins of acclimated cells to EtOH condition and the proteome of acclimated cells to GlcAA condition. Most of the differentially regulated proteins are involved in metabolism, folding, sorting, and degradation processes. In conclusion, acclimation under appropriate sub-lethal conditions can be used as a method to improve cell phenotypic characteristics such as viability, growth under certain conditions, and tolerance to downstream processes.

BackgroundLoss of viability is one of the most important problems during starter culture production. Previous research has mostly focused on the production process of bacterial starters, but there are few studies about cellular protein deterioration causing cell defectiveness during storage. In the present study, we investigated the influence of storage temperature (−21, 4, 35°C) on the cellular protein modifications which may contribute to the senescence of freeze-dried Acetobacter senegalensis.ResultsHeterogeneous populations composed of culturable cells, viable but non-culturable cells (VBNC) and dead cells were generated when freeze-dried cells were kept at −21 and 4°C for 12 months whereas higher storage temperature (35°C) mainly caused death of the cells. The analysis of stored cell proteome by 2D-DiGE demonstrated a modified pattern of protein profile for cell kept at 4 and 35°C due to the formation of protein spot trains and shift of Isoelectric point (pI). Quantification of carbonylated protein by ELISA showed that the cells stored at 4 and 35°C had higher carbonylated protein contents than fresh cells. 2D-DiGE followed by Western blotting also confirmed the carbonylation of cellular proteins involved in translation process and energy generation. The auto-fluorescent feature of cells kept at 35°C increased significantly which may be an indication of protein glycation during storage. In addition, the percentage of cellular unsaturated fatty acid and the solubility of cellular proteins decreased upon storage of cells at higher temperature suggesting that peroxidation of fatty acids and possibly protein lipidation and oxidation occurred.ConclusionsHigh storage temperature induces some deteriorative reactions such as protein oxidation, lipidation and glycation which may cause further protein modifications like pI-shift, and protein insolubility. These modifications can partly account for the changes in cell viability. It can also be deduced that even moderate carbonylation of some critical cellular proteins (like ribosomal proteins) may lead to VBNC formation or death of freeze-dried bacteria. Moreover, it seems that other mechanisms of biomolecule deterioration preceding protein carbonylation lead to VBNC formation under very low storage temperature.

The objective of the present work was first the isolation of novel acetic acid bacteria strains from natural Moroccan habitats, and then, the evaluation of their ability to produce microbial starters for vinegar production on a large scale. The strains were isolated from figs, dates, cactus, and traditional fruit vinegars. Four strains, selected from a total of 63 isolates, were confirmed as belonging to Acetobacter species according to biochemical and molecular studies based on 16s rRNA sequence analysis. Acetous fermentation tests, performed on date and apple fermented juices using selected Acetobacter strains, showed a high capacity of acidification. The most efficient strain KU710511, isolated from Morrocan cactus (Opuntia ficus-indica), was identified as Acetobacter strain closely related to A. pasteurianus and yielded 42.5 g/L acidity in apple juice. Cell growth optimization was carried out for KU710511 using response surface methodology (RSM). The linear, quadratic, and interaction effects of four factors-ethanol, acetic acid, glucose concentrations and pH-were studied by the application of a central composite design. Thirty experiments were designed to predict the maximum concentration of cell biomass. The optimal calculated values of ethanol, acetic acid, glucose and pH allowing the prediction of the maximum biomass production (2.21 g/L) were 28.18, 10.12, 15.15 and 5.33 g/L, respectively. Subsequently, further batch fermentations were carried out in a 6-L labbioreactor at optimal conditions. The results were in line with the predicted values. It can be concluded that the studied strain is well suited to be used as a parental strain to prepare a starter for fruit vinegar production.

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