Relationship between total cell counts and exopolysaccharide production of Streptococcus thermophilus T9 in reconstituted skim milk

The main objective of this study was to establish a correlation between total bacterial count (TBC) and exopolysaccharide (EPS) production in a specific Streptococcus thermophilus strain. TBC was determined based on realtime quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) standard curves of S. thermophilus T9 cultured in reconstituted skim milk. EPS yields were measured following isolation and purification steps using a dextran standard curve. The relationship between TBC of and EPS production by S. thermophilus T9 was analyzed alongside these standard curves. The results showed that EPS yield reached 36.6 +/- 0.8 mg L-1 following 6 h of incubation. Over the same period, the streptococcal counts measured by qPCR increased from 4.71 +/- 0.15 to 7.52 +/- 0.09 log10 TBC mL-1. Overall, EPS biosynthesis has been shown to be a growth-related trait in S. thermophilus T9 (R2 = 0.991). In conclusion, the monitoring of TBC may provide an insight into the mechanism of EPS production and, therefore, its use can be recommended for this purpose and for EPS quantification. To our knowledge, this is the first research that has associated qPCR-based TBC with EPS yield in S. thermophilus.

Automated summary

This study established a correlation between total bacterial count (TBC) and exopolysaccharide (EPS) production in a specific Streptococcus thermophilus strain, showing that EPS biosynthesis is growth-related and can be monitored through TBC for quantification purposes.