The Effect of Acid Stress Treatment on Viability and Membrane Fatty Acid Composition of Oenococcus oeni SD-2a

To obtain ready-to-use wine malolactic starter cultures with high viability, the effects of acid stress treatments on the growth, inoculation viability, freeze-drying viability, and membrane fatty acid composition of the native Oenococcus oeni SD-2a strain were studied. The results showed that pH 3.5 and 3.2 adaptive treatments did not strongly decrease cell biomass but increased distinctly inoculation viability and freeze-drying viability. Concerning the membrane fatty acid composition, it was observed that acid stress conditions increased significantly the relative concentration of lactobacillic acid (C19cyc11) and the unsaturated:saturated fatty acid ratio in cell membrane lipids. We assumed that acid-induced cross protective responses could be used in preparing ready-to-use O. oeni SD-2a malolactic starter cultures, and the accumulation of lactobacillic acid in the membrane of O. oeni SD-2a cells appears as an acid stress response mechanism, which might be related with the enhanced viability.