クエン酸が乳酸菌の生育と代謝に及ぼす影響

抄録

Amino acid is generally divided into two groups, d- or l-form, based on its chirality. The physiological role of d-amino acid has not been clarified in details as compared with that of l-amino acid. But recently, the production mechanism and function of d-amino acid in food have been studied extensively. We found that the concentration of d-amino acid in sake brewed with kimoto tended to be high. These d-amino acids were produced mainly by lactic acid bacteria such as Leuconostoc mesenteroides and Lactobacillus sakei in kimoto and increased taste of sake. We are interested in which compound in medium is effective for d-amino acid production by lactic acid bacteria. We focused on citric acid in de Man, Rogosa, Sharpe medium that is a member of citrate cycle, one of major metabolic pathways in microorganism.

In this minireview, we describe the effect of citrate on growth and metabolism in various lactic acid bacteria in relation to our studies on d-amino acid production of Lactobacillus sakei.