Construction and analysis of a food-grade Lactiplantibacillus plantarum esterase/lipase overexpression system

Lactiplantibacillus plantarum (L. plantarum) is widely used in the food industry, especially in meat fermentation and dairy processing, due to its lipase and esterase activities. In this study, lp_1002 from L. plantarum WCFS1 was cloned into the food-grade gene expression vector pMG36n, with nisin used as a selective marker. Furthermore, pMG36n- lp_1002 was retransformed into L. plantarum WCFS1, and lp_1002 was overexpressed in the newly constructed L. plantarum WCFS1 strain. Moreover, recombinant Lp_1002 showed the characteristics of both lipase and esterase. The results from hydrolysis of p-nitrophenylphosphate (pNPP) and triglycerides showed that the hydrolysis activities of the recombinant Lp_1002 were 420% and 360% higher than that of the original strain, respectively. In addition, the results of wine MLF fermentation suggest that the recombinant strain significantly reduced the contents of ethyl esters, acetate esters and other types of esters, which affected wine aroma during brewing. Therefore, the recombinant strain has great application potential in food fermentation.

Automated summary

In this study, the lp_1002 gene from Lactiplantibacillus plantarum WCFS1 was successfully cloned and overexpressed in L. plantarum WCFS1 strain. The recombinant strain exhibited higher lipase and esterase activities, and significantly reduced ester content during wine fermentation, indicating its potential application in food fermentation.