Response of Osmotic Adjustment of Lactobacillus bulgaricus to NaCl Stress

Growth and osmotic response of Lactobacillus bulgaricus ATCC 11842 under hyperosmotic constraint were investigated in a chemically defined medium (CDM) and MRS medium. NaCl could inhibit the growth of L. bulgaricus which decreased with increasing NaCl concentration. In the MRS, NaCl of 1.0 mol · L−1 was the biggest salt stress concentration; in the CDM, 0.8 mol · L−1 was the biggest inhibition concentration. In contrast to what was observed in other lactic acid bacteria, proline, glycine betaine and related molecules were unable to relieve inhibition of growth of L. bulgaricus under osmotic constraint. This was correlated to the absence of sequences homologous to the genes coding for glycine-betaine and/or proline transporters described in Lactococcus lactis and Bacillus subtilis. The amino acid aspartate and alanine were proved to be osmoprotective under NaCl stress. Addition of peptone (0.25% w/v) in the presence of salt led to a stimulation of the growth, as the decrease of the lag time and generation time, and the final biomass increased from 0.31 to 0.64.