Glycerol metabolism in Lactobacillus collinoides: production of 3-hydroxypropionaldehyde, a precursor of acrolein

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.