A study into the role of L-aspartic acid on the metabolism of L-malic acid and D-glucose by Oenococcus oeni.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this work was to study the effect of L-aspartic acid concentration on bacterial growth, D-glucose fermentation and L-malic acid consumption of Oenococcus oeni NCFB 1707.


RESULTS
Bacterial cultures were performed in synthetic media. Bacterial growth, D-glucose fermentation and L-malic acid consumption were reduced when L-aspartic acid concentration became excessive. This inhibitory effect of high concentrations of L-aspartic acid on bacterial growth was also observed with several Oenococcus oeni strains, except O. oeni BL01. The L-aspartic acid inhibitory effect on bacterial growth could be reduced by increasing the concentration of L-glutamic acid. L-glutamic acid transport was found to be competitively inhibited by L-aspartic acid. In addition, an excessive amount of L-aspartic acid modified D-glucose metabolism, with an overproduction of acetic acid and reduced ethanol production.


CONCLUSIONS
Since L-glutamic acid is an essential amino acid for the bacterial strain used, the L-aspartic acid inhibitory effect on bacterial growth could be linked to its involvement in an antagonistic interaction with L-glutamic acid.


CONCLUSIONS
Such antagonistic interactions between amino acids in O. oeni strains could be another explanation for the difficulties of inducing malolactic fermentation in wines.
Vasserot
Y
Y
Laboratoire d'Oenologie, Faculté des Sciences, Reims, France. yann.vasserot@univ-reims.fr
Dion
C
C
Bonnet
E
E
Maujean
A
A
Jeandet
P
P
D001224:Aspartic Acid / Q000378:metabolism*; D003470:Culture Media; D005285:Fermentation; D005947:Glucose / Q000378:metabolism*; D018698:Glutamic Acid / Q000378:metabolism; D006095:Gram-Positive Cocci / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D007934:Leuconostoc / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D008293:Malates / Q000378:metabolism*
D003470:Culture Media; D008293:Malates; D001224:Aspartic Acid; D018698:Glutamic Acid; C030298:malic acid; D005947:Glucose