Relationship between Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus under whey conditions: Focus on amino acid formation

In this study, we performed microarray experiments using Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus 2038 cultured with or without Streptococcus thermophilus in whey medium to investigate nitrogen utilisation of these two strains, since Lb. bulgaricus 2038 use whey as their nitrogen before casein. For the utilisation of environmental free amino acids and peptides in co-culture, Lb. bulgaricus 2038 imported the types of peptides necessary for growth more effectively compared with monoculture because S. thermophilus primarily preferred different types of peptides than Lb. bulgaricus, but has lost the ability to prioritise the use of free branched-chain amino acids. Considering the ratio of nitrogen versus carbon being lower during co-culture, Lb. bulgaricus 2038 was induced to stop converting aspartate into carbon-skeleton intermediates which is catalysed by phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase. Despite mutualism, Lb. bulgaricus underwent competitive co-evolution with S. thermophilus to optimise nitrogen utilisation during co-cultivation.