Lactobacillus plantarum

All unapproved Citizendium articles may contain errors of fact, bias, grammar etc. A version of an article is unapproved unless it is marked as citable with a dedicated green template at the top of the page, as in this version of the 'Biology' article. Citable articles are intended to be of reasonably high quality. The participants in the Citizendium project make no representations about the reliability of Citizendium articles or, generally, their suitability for any purpose. This article is currently being developed as part of an Eduzendium student project in the framework of a course entitled Microbiology 201 at Queens College, CUNY. The course homepage can be found at CZ:Biol 201: General Microbiology. For the course duration, the article is closed to outside editing. Of course you can always leave comments on the discussion page. The anticipated date of course completion is May 21, 2009. One month after that date at the latest, this notice shall be removed. Besides, many other Citizendium articles welcome your collaboration!

Lactobacillus plantarum
Scientific classification
Domain: Bacteria Phylum: Firmicutes Class: Bacilli Order: Lactobacillales Family: Lactobacillaceae Genus: Lactobacillus Species: plantarum
Binomial name
Lactobacillus plantarum Photo Credit: Janice Carr (1982)

Genome structure

In 2003, Michiel Kleerebezem mapped out the complete genome of Lactobacillus plantarum WCFS1. Lactobacillus plantarum strain WCFS1 is known to have 3,308,274 base pairs and contains 3,052 protein-encoding genes as well as three plasmids (1,917-bp, 2,365-bp, and 36,069-bp,) which accounts for its high adaptability. The G+C content of the chromosome is 44.5%, but the plasmids contain slightly less G+C content. 1

Cell structure and metabolism

Lactobacillus plantarum is a gram positive, rod-shaped, organotrophic, bacteria often called lactic acid bacteria because it gets most of its energy from converting glucose to lactate via homolactic and heterolactic fermentation. Homolactic fermentation uses the EMP pathway and heterolactic fermentation uses the phosphoketolase pathway. Therefore, L. plantarum is a facultative heterofermentative lactobacilli. 2 1

Ecology

Lactobacillus plantarum grows best at temperatures between 30º to 60º Celsius.

References

1. Michiel Kleerebezem, Jos Boekhorst, Richard van Kranenburg, Douwe Molenaar, Oscar P. Kuipers, Rob Leer, Renato Tarchini, Sander A. Peters, Hans M. Sandbrink, Mark W. E. J. Fiers, Willem Stiekema, René M. Klein Lankhorst, Peter A. Bron, Sally M. Hoffer, Masja N. Nierop Groot, Robert Kerkhoven, Maaike de Vries, Björn Ursing, Willem M. de Vos*, and Roland J. Siezen. (2003). Complete genome sequence of Lactobacillus plantarum WCFS1. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 100 (4), 1990-1995.
2. http://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Lactobacillus