Physiology, metabolism Adaptation of Lactobacillus sakei to meat: a new regulatory mechanism of ribose utilization?

Lactobacillus sakei is a lactic acid bacterium commonly found on meat and meat products. Meat is a rich substrate but contains small amounts of sugars, mainly glucose and ribose. The phosphotransferase system (PTS) is a multienzymatic complex responsible for sugar uptake. It is also involved in the regulation of metabolism through various mechanisms (catabolite activation and repression, inducer expulsion and exclusion). The ptsHI operon of L. sakei, encoding the general enzymes of the PTS, was studied and mutants were constructed. On ribose, these mutants grow twice as fast as the wild-type strain. This phenotype was never described in other bacteria and suggests that the PTS regulates ribose utilization. When compared to what is known from the regulations involving the PTS in other bacteria, this mechanism might be new. In Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli, in which ribose catabolism was investigated, ribose is transported by an ABC transporter, encoded by rbsABCD genes and then phosphorylated by the rbsK encoded ribose kinase. Ribose-5P is then metabolized through the pentose-P pathway involving xylulose-5P phosphoketolase and acetate kinase. Whereas phosphoketolase and acetate kinase activities remained unchanged in L. sakei ptsI mutants, ribose kinase activity and uptake were increased by a factor of 2.5 and 1.5, respectively. The target of the PTS regulation would thus be transport and/or phosphorylation of ribose. The gene cluster encoding a ribose transporter, ribose kinase and a regulator was cloned and sequenced. In L. sakei no gene encoding RbsA, RbsB or RbsC could be found. However, rbsD was present as well as a new gene rbsU, encoding a protein homologous to a glucose transporter responsible for facilitated diffusion of glucose. The rbsUDK operon is induced by ribose via the regulator RbsR encoded by rbsR located downstream of rbsUDK. In ptsI mutants, this operon was not overexpressed on ribose. This shows that the regulation of ribose utilization is not a transcriptional regulation. Upstream from the rbs operon, a gene encoding acetate kinase (ackA) was found. In other bacteria in which these genes were identified, ackA and the rbs operon are not linked. Moreover, in B. subtilis, ackA is regulated by catabolite activation whereas the rbs operon is repressed by catabolite repression, two mechanisms involving the PTS. In L. sakei, ackA and the rbs operon are adjacent on the Lait 81 (2001) 131–138 131 © INRA, EDP Sciences, 2001 * Correspondence and reprints Tel.: (33) 1 34 65 22 89; fax: (33) 1 34 65 21 05; e-mail: [email protected] ** Present address: Institute of Food Research, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7UA, UK.