Lactic Acid Bacteria as Cell Factories for the Generation of Bioactive Peptides

BROWN L.; VERA PINGITORE E.; MOZZI F.; SAAVEDRA L.; VILLEGAS J.M.; HEBERT E.M.

PROTEIN AND PEPTIDE LETTERS

BENTHAM SCIENCE PUBL LTD

Lugar: Oak Park; Año: 2017

0929-8665

Abstract: Nowadays, there is a growing interest in incorporate functional foods to the everyday diet, in order to achieve health promotion and disease risk reduction. Numerous studies have focused their attention on the production of biologically active peptides as nutraceuticals and functional food ingredients due to their health benefits. These short peptides, displaying antihypertensive, antioxidant, mineral binding, immunomodulatory and antimicrobial activities, are hidden in a latent state within the primary sequences of food proteins, requiring enzymatic proteolysis for their release. Microbial fermentation is one of the major and cheapest processes used to generate bioactive peptides, and lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are among the most widely microorganisms used as starter cultures for the production of fermented foods. This article reviews the current knowledge of LAB as cell factories for the production of bioactive peptides from a variety of food protein sources. These microorganisms depend on a complex proteolytic system to ensure a successful fermentation. The dairy industry stands out among others, due to the employment of LAB containing cell envelope-associated proteinases (CEPs), responsible for the first step of casein breakdown that release bioactive peptides during milk fermentation. A better understanding of the functionality and regulation of the proteolytic system of LAB opens up future opportunities to search for novel food-derived compounds with potential health promoting properties.