N. Sauvageot et al., Glycerol metabolism in Lactobacillus collinoides: production of 3-hydroxypropionaldehyde, a precursor of acrolein, INT J F MIC, 55(1-3), 2000, pp. 167-170
Lactobacillus collinoides is a lactic acid bacterium commonly found in ferm
enting apple juice. Although this bacterium is not particularly involved in
malolactic conversion, the presence of L. collinoides in cider may have se
rious consequences on the product. L. collinoides is indeed considered to b
e responsible for the transformation of glycerol to 3-hydroxypropionaldehyd
e (3-HPA), a precursor of acrolein that spoils the product quality by gener
ating bitter tastes. The purpose of our work was to evaluate the influence
of environmental and culture conditions on the conversion of glycerol to 3-
HPA in L. collinoides, and to obtain a DNA probe of the gene coding for gly
cerol dehydratase, the enzyme responsible for this conversion. (C) 2000 Els
evier Science B.V. All rights reserved.