Cyclopropane fatty acid synthase from Oenococcus oeni: expression in Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris and biochemical characterization.

Bacterial cyclopropane fatty acid synthases (CFA synthases) catalyze the transfer of a methyl group from S-adenosyl-L-methionine (AdoMet) to the double bond of a lipid chain, thereby forming a cyclopropane ring. CFAs contribute to resistance to acidity, dryness, and osmotic imbalance in many bacteria. This work describes the first biochemical characterization of a lactic acid bacterium CFA synthase. We have overexpressed Oenococcus oeni CFA synthase in E. coli in order to purify the enzyme. The optimum cyclopropanation activity was obtained at pH 5.6 and 35.8 °C. The high K(m) (AdoMet) value obtained (2.26 mM) demonstrates the low affinity of O. oeni enzyme toward the L. lactis subsp. cremoris unsaturated phospholipids. These results explain the partial complementation of the L. lactis subsp. cremoris cfa mutant by the O. oeni cfa gene and suggest a probable substrate specificity of the O. oeni enzyme. The current study reveals an essential hypothesis about the specificity of O. oeni CFA synthase which could play a key function in the acid tolerance mechanisms of this enological bacterium.

Cyclopropanation of membrane unsaturated fatty acids is not essential to the acid stress response of Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris.

Cyclopropane fatty acids (CFAs) are synthetized in situ by the transfer of a methylene group from S-adenosyl-L-methionine to a double bond of unsaturated fatty acid chains of membrane phospholipids. This conversion, catalyzed by the Cfa synthase enzyme, occurs in many bacteria and is recognized to play a key role in the adaptation of bacteria in response to a drastic perturbation of the environment. The role of CFAs in the acid tolerance response was investigated in the lactic acid bacterium Lactococcus lactis MG1363. A mutant of the cfa gene was constructed by allelic exchange. The cfa gene encoding the Cfa synthase was cloned and introduced into the mutant to obtain the complemented strain for homologous system studies. Data obtained by gas chromatography (GC) and GC-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) validated that the mutant could not produce CFA. The CFA levels in both the wild-type and complemented strains increased upon their entry to stationary phase, especially with acid-adapted cells or, more surprisingly, with ethanol-adapted cells. The results obtained by performing quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR) experiments showed that transcription of the cfa gene was highly induced by acidity (by 10-fold with cells grown at pH 5.0) and by ethanol (by 9-fold with cells grown with 6% ethanol) in comparison with that in stationary phase. Cell viability experiments were performed after an acidic shock on the mutant strain, the wild-type strain, and the complemented strain, as a control. The higher viability level of the acid-adapted cells of the three strains after 3 h of shock proved that the cyclopropanation of unsaturated fatty acids is not essential for L. lactis subsp. cremoris survival under acidic conditions. Moreover, fluorescence anisotropy data showed that CFA itself could not maintain the membrane fluidity level, particularly with ethanol-grown cells.