Citrate utilization by homo- and heterofermentative lactobacilli

Citrate utilization by several homo- and heterofermentative lactobacilli wa s determined in Kempler and McKay and in calcium citrate media. The last me dium with glucose permitted best to distinguish citrate-fermenting lactobac illi. Lactobacillus rhamnosus ATCC 11443, Lactobacillus zeae ATCC 15820 and Lactobacillus plantarum ATCC 8014 used citrate as sole energy source, wher eas in the other strains, glucose and citrate were cometabolized. Some lact obacilli strains produced aroma compounds from citrate. Citrate transport experiments suggested that all strains studied presented a citrate transport system inducible by citrate. The levels of induction we re variable between several strains. Dot blot experiment showed that lactob acilli do not present an equivalent plasmid coding for citrate permease.