Comparative Metabolomics Analyses of Plantaricin Q7 Production by Lactobacillus plantarum Q7

Plantaricin Q7 is a bacteriocin produced
by Lactobacillus
plantarum Q7 with food preservation potential. Low
yield is one of the bottlenecks of the wide application of plantaricin
Q7. Nontargeted metabolomics was performed to reveal the mechanism
of plantaricin Q7 biosynthesis. The results showed that the composition
and abundance of intracellular metabolites varied significantly at
key time points of plantaricin Q7 synthesis. Differential metabolic
pathways were purine metabolism; pyrimidine metabolism; alanine, aspartate,
and glutamate metabolism; amino acid biosynthesis; aminoacyl-tRNA
biosynthesis; and ABC transporters. Differential metabolites were
xanthine, deoxyadenosine, uracil, 5-methylcytosine, α-ketoglutarate,
γ-aminobutyric acid, glutamate, glutamine, and tryptophan. Based
on metabolomics information, the putative metabolic synthesis pathway
of plantaricin Q7 was proposed. Glutamine, glutamate, and 5-methylcytosine
could be critical metabolites and simulate plantaricin Q7 biosynthesis
significantly (P < 0.05). Bacteriocin production
was investigated by comparative metabolomics in this report, which
could help to achieve higher plantaricin Q7 yield by metabolic regulation.