Isolation and characterization of Lactobacillus plantarum MPL16: a wakame-utilizing immunobiotic strain from swine feces

BRIAN TZU-AN CHAO ; YOSHIHITO SUDA; ELVIRA HEBERT; HUMAYUN KOBER; TADAO SAITO; WAKAKO IKEDA-OHTSUBO; HARUKI KITAZAWA; LUCILA SAAVEDRA; HISASHI ASO; JULIO VILLENA; YUKI MASUMIZU; HIKARU IIDA; LEONARDO ALBARRACÍN; TOMONORI NOCHI; MASAHIKO SUZUKI

San Miguel de tucuman

Simposio; SIBAL 2016. V International Symposium on Lactic Acid Bacteria. Benefitting from Lactic Acid Bacteria. Progress in Health and Food.; 2016

Gastrointestinal infections in weaning pig are considered a major global problem with a negative economic impact for livestock farmers. Several alternatives are being studied to improve resistance of pigs against gut pathogens. In this regard, a recent study has suggested that the feeding of seaweed (wakame) is able to augment the mucosal immune functions in pigs. On the other hand, our group has demonstrated in vitro and in vivo that immunomodulatory lactic acid bacteria (immunobiotic LAB) are a good alternative to improve resistance against gastrointestinal pathogens in the porcine host. Therefore, we hypothesized that a combination of wakame and immunobiotic LAB able to metabolize and grow in this seaweed could be used as a superior functional feed to improve gut immunity in pigs. The aim of this study was to isolate LAB from swine intestine and feces in order to evaluate: a) their capacity to utilize wakame for growing, and b) their immunomodulatory activities in porcine intestinal epithelial (PIE) cells. Isolates obtained from porcine intestine or faces belonged to the genera Lactobacillus and Enterococcus. Isolated LAB were evaluated according to their capacity to ferment wakame and positive strains were then evaluated to perform their immune-characterization. The ability of lactobacilli to beneficially modulate the inflammatory response in PIE cells after the challenge with enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) was studied. A L. plantarum strain isolated from feces, named MPL16, showed the higher capacity to modulate the production of inflammatory cytokines in ETEC-challenged PIE cells. The genome of this strain was sequenced using a whole-genome shotgun strategy (Illumina). It consists of 3.28 Mb with mean G+C content of 43.6%. A total of 2,880 coding sequences (CDS), 67 structural tRNAs and 13 rRNA were predicted. Functional categories predicted by RAST showed 334 subsystems represented in the genome. This study allowed us to identify and characterize a promising immunobiotic strain that exhibited a good potential to be used for the fermentation of wakame, and for the development of a new functional feed able to modulate gut immunity in the porcine host.