S. Thermophilus (s + thermophilu)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Effect of the lactic acid bacterium Streptococcus thermophilus on stratum corneum ceramide levels and signs and symptoms of atopic dermatitis patients

EXPERIMENTAL DERMATOLOGY, Issue 5 2003
Luisa Di Marzio
Abstract:, A reduced amount of total ceramides could be responsible for functional abnormalities of the skin of atopic dermatitis (AD) patients. The ability of an experimental cream containing sonicated Streptococcus thermophilus to increase skin ceramide levels in healthy subjects has been previously reported. The aim of the present work was to investigate the effects of the topical administration of a S. thermophilus -containing cream on ceramide levels of stratum corneum from AD patients. A 2-week application of the cream, containing a sonicated preparation of the lactic acid bacterium S. thermophilus, in the forearm skin of 11 patients led to a significant and relevant increase of skin ceramide amounts, which could have resulted from the sphingomyelin hydrolysis through the bacterial sphingomyelinase. Moreover, in all patients the topical application of our experimental cream also resulted in the improvement of the signs and symptoms characteristic of AD skin (i.e. erythema, scaling, pruritus). [source]


Effect of fat and non-fat dry matter of milk, and starter type, on the rheological properties of set during the coagulation process

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FOOD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, Issue 3 2007
Özlem Gün
Summary The effect of fat and non-fat dry matter (NFDM) of milk, and starter type, on the rheological properties of set yoghurt during the coagulation process was studied using a rotational viscosimeter. The pH was monitored simultaneously with viscosity readings. Recombined milk was cultured with yoghurt starter culture (YC), consisting of Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus, or ABT1, consisting of S. thermophilus, Lactobacillus acidophilus and bifidobacteria, at 40 °C until the pH dropped to 4.7. Yoghurt made with ABT1 had higher viscosity values than yoghurt made with YC. The NFDM content of milk had a major effect on the viscosity of curd made using YC or ABT1. For YC and ABT1, three stages were identified on the viscosity,incubation time curves and viscosity behaviour was different in each stage. [source]


Transcriptional analysis of the gdhA gene in Streptococcus thermophilus

JOURNAL OF APPLIED MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 4 2009
C. Lazzi
Abstract Aims:, To study the transcriptional analysis of glutamate dehydrogenase gene, involved in the amino acid conversion to aroma compound in Streptococcus thermophilus. Methods and Results:, Analysis of the gdhA gene nucleotide sequence of S. thermophilus CNRZ1066 revealed that the coding region is 1353 nucleotides long. The deduced amino acids sequence exhibits the putative GDH active site and some conserved domains characteristic of family I of hexameric GDHs. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the gdh gene of S. thermophilus clustered with the orthologues of other streptococci such as Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus agalactiae and Streptococcus infantarius. Studying the structural organization of the gdhA locus the amino acid similarity of GDHs was higher than 87%, but the locus organization was not conserved. A dominant transcript of approximately 1·4 kbp was revealed by Northern blot hybridization, suggesting that gdhA mRNA is monocystronic. Primer extension showed that transcription start point of gdhA was localized 43 bp upstream of the potential start codon (ATG). Conclusions:, The gdhA represents a monocistronic operon highly conserved in phylogenetic-related bacteria. Significance and Impact of the Study:, A deeper knowledge of gdh transcriptional mechanisms could lead to develop S. thermophilus industrial starter cultures with optimized aromatic properties. [source]


Regulation of branched-chain amino acid biosynthesis by ,-acetolactate decarboxylase in Streptococcus thermophilus

LETTERS IN APPLIED MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 6 2003
C. Monnet
Abstract Aims: To demonstrate the presence of an active , -acetolactate decarboxylase in Streptococcus thermophilus and to investigate its physiological function. Methods and Results:Streptococcus thermophilus CNRZ385 contains a gene encoding an , -acetolactate decarboxylase. Comparison of the production of , -acetolactate and its decarboxylation products, by the parent strain and an , -acetolactate decarboxylase-deficient mutant, demonstrated the presence of a control of the pool of ,-acetolactate by valine, leucine and isoleucine. This control occurs via an allosteric activation of the , -acetolactate decarboxylase. Cell-free extracts of S. thermophilus were not able to decarboxylate the isoleucine precursor , -acetohydroxybutyrate. Conclusions: These results strongly suggest that one of the physiological functions of the , -acetolactate decarboxylase in S. thermophilus is to regulate leucine and valine biosynthesis by diverting the flux of , -acetolactate towards acetoin when the branched-chain amino acids are present at a high concentration. Significance and Impact of the Study: Regulation of branched-chain amino acid biosynthesis by , -acetolactate decarboxylase may occur in several other micro-organisms and explain some of their growth properties. [source]


The CHAP domain of Cse functions as an endopeptidase that acts at mature septa to promote Streptococcus thermophilus cell separation

MOLECULAR MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 5 2009
Séverine Layec
Summary Cell separation is dependent on cell wall hydrolases that cleave the peptidoglycan shared between daughter cells. In Streptococcus thermophilus, this step is performed by the Cse protein whose depletion resulted in the formation of extremely long chains of cells. Cse, a natural chimeric enzyme created by domain shuffling, carries at least two important domains for its activity: the LysM expected to be responsible for the cell wall-binding and the CHAP domain predicted to contain the active centre. Accordingly, the localization of Cse on S. thermophilus cell surface has been undertaken by immunogold electron and immunofluorescence microscopies using of antibodies raised against the N-terminal end of this protein. Immunolocalization shows the presence of the Cse protein at mature septa. Moreover, the CHAP domain of Cse exhibits a cell wall lytic activity in zymograms performed with cell walls of Micrococcus lysodeikticus, Bacillus subtilis and S. thermophilus. Additionally, RP-HPLC analysis of muropeptides released from B. subtilis and S. thermophilus cell wall after digestion with the CHAP domain shows that Cse is an endopeptidase. Altogether, these results suggest that Cse is a cell wall hydrolase involved in daughter cell separation of S. thermophilus. [source]


Influence of heat impact in reconstituted skim milk on the properties of yoghurt fermented by ropy or non-ropy starter cultures

MOLECULAR NUTRITION & FOOD RESEARCH (FORMERLY NAHRUNG/FOOD), Issue 5 2003
Peter Chr.
Abstract The paper describes studies on the influence of heat impact in reconstituted skim milk on chemical and functional properties of yoghurt products. Reconstituted skim milk was heated for 20 min at 85°C, 90°C, or 95°C. Ropy (producing exopolysaccharides, EPS) or non-ropy strains of S. thermophilus and L. delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus were used as starter culture for yoghurt manufacture. The studies have shown that the fermentation times decreased with increasing heat impact when the ropy starter culture was used, while they remained to a far extent unchanged if the non-ropy starter culture was applied. The lactic acid contents of the yoghurt products were in the same range when the milk was heated at 85°C or 90°C, while they were different when milk was heated at 95°C. There was a tendency visible that an increase in preheating leads to increased L(+)- and decreased D(,)-lactic acid contents if the non-ropy culture was applied. Using the ropy culture, it was vice versa. A slightly decrease in proteolysis with increasing heat impact was to be noted with both starter cultures. Concerning the relation of proteolysis to acidification, the fermentation process could be subdivided into three sections with different slopes if the non-ropy starter culture was used, while a linear relation was found if the ropy starter culture was applied. Regarding final product characteristics it was found that the functional properties of yoghurt decreased with increasing heat impact when the ropy starter culture was applied, while they remained to a far extent unchanged when the non-ropy starter culture was used. It can be concluded from these studies that a preheating of milk at a temperature of 85°C (20 min) is optimal in regard to final yoghurt product characteristics. [source]


A study of Streptococcus thermophilus proteome by integrated analytical procedures and differential expression investigations

PROTEINS: STRUCTURE, FUNCTION AND BIOINFORMATICS, Issue 1 2006
Simona Arena
Abstract Streptococcus thermophilus is a Gram-positive bacterium belonging to the group of lactic acid bacteria, among which several genera play an essential role in manufacture of food products. Recently, a genomic consortium sequenced and annotated its entire genome, which has been demonstrated to contain 1900 coding sequences. In this study, we have revealed the expression products of almost 200 different genes using a proteomic strategy combining 2-DE plus MALDI-TOF PMF and differential 1-DE plus ,LC-ESI-IT-MS/MS. Thus, a number of cellular pathways related to important physiological processes were described at the proteomic level. Almost 50 genes were related to multiple electrophoretic species, whose heterogeneity was mainly due to variability in pI values. A 2-DE reference map obtained for lactose-grown cells was compared with those obtained after heat, cold, acid, oxidative and starvation stresses. Protein up/down-regulation measurements demonstrated that adaptation to different environmental challenges may involve the contribution of unique as well as combined physiological mechanisms. Common regulatory sites in the promoter region of genes whose expression was induced after stress were identified. These results provide a better comprehension of biochemical processes related to stress resistance in S. thermophilus, allowing defining the molecular bases of adaptative responses or markers for the identification of strains with potential industrial applications. [source]


Identification of a potent immunostimulatory oligodeoxynucleotide from Streptococcus thermophilus lacZ

ANIMAL SCIENCE JOURNAL, Issue 5 2009
Takeshi SHIMOSATO
ABSTRACT Immunostimulatory sequences of oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs), such as CpG ODNs, are potent stimulators of innate immunity. Here, we identified a strong immunostimulatory CpG ODN, which we named MsST, from the lac Z gene of Streptococcus (S.) thermophilus ATCC19258, and we evaluated its immune functions. In in vitro studies, MsST had a similar ability as the murine prototype CpG ODN 1555 to induce inflammatory cytokine production and cell proliferation. In mouse splenocytes, MsST increased the number of CD80+CD11c+and CD86+CD11c+ dendritic cells and CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells. We also analyzed the effects of MsST on the expression of regulatory cytokines by real-time quantitative PCR. MsST was more potent at inducing interleukin-10 expression than the ODN control 1612, indicating that MsST can augment the regulatory T cell response via Toll-like receptor 9, which plays an important role in suppressing T helper type 2 responses. These results suggest that S. thermophilus, whose genes include a strong Immunostimulatory sequence-ODN, is a good candidate for a starter culture to develop new physiologically functional foods and feeds. [source]


Major microbiota of lactic acid bacteria from Matsoni, a traditional Georgian fermented milk

ANIMAL SCIENCE JOURNAL, Issue 1 2007
Kenji UCHIDA
ABSTRACT A total of 26 samples of Matsoni were collected in Georgia. From these samples 80 strains of lactic acid cocci and 173 strains of lactobacilli were isolated. The number of lactic acid bacteria varied between 105 and 1010 colony forming unit (CFU)/mL. All the isolated lactic acid bacteria were thermophilic bacteria that could grow at 45°C. The predominant lactic acid bacteria were Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii spp. bulgaricus in 25 samples of Matsoni, while Lactobacillus helveticus was also a predominant species, together with the two previous species in one sample of Matsoni. We showed there was diversity in both S. thermophilus and L. delbrueckii spp. bulgaricus at the strain level by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA analysis. [source]