Acid Response of Bifidobacterium longum subsp longum BBMN68 Is Accompanied by Modification of the Cell Membrane Fatty Acid Composition

The acid response of Bifidobacterium longum subsp. longum BBMN68 has been studied in our previous study. The fab gene, which is supposed to be involved in membrane fatty acid biosynthesis, was demonstrated to be induced in acid response. In order to investigate the relationship between acid response and cell membrane fatty acid composition, the acid adaptation of BBMN68 was assessed and the membrane fatty acid composition at different adaptation conditions was identified. Indeed, the fatty acid composition was influenced by acid adaptation. Our results showed that the effective acid adaptations were accompanied with decrease in the unsaturated to saturated fatty acids ratio (UFA/SFA) and increase in cyclopropane fatty acid (CFA) content, which corresponded to previous studies. Moreover, both effective and non-effective acid adaptation conditions resulted in decrease in the C-18:1 cis9/C-18:1 trans-9 ratio, indicating that the C-18:1 cis-9/C-18:1 trans-9 ratio is associated with acid tolerance response but not with acid adaptation response. Taken together, this study indicated that the UFA/SFA and CFA content of BBMN68 were involved in acid adaptation and the C-18:1 cis-9/C-18:1 trans-9 ratio was involved in acid tolerance response.