Strain diversity of plant-associated Lactiplantibacillus plantarum

Abstract

The intraspecific phenotypic and genetic diversity of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum (formerly Lactobacillus plantarum) was examined for five strains isolated from fermented olives and eight strains from cactus fruit, fermented tomatoes, teff injera, wheat boza, and wheat sourdough starter sources. Carbohydrate utilization and stress tolerance characteristics showed that the olive isolates grew more robustly in galactose and raffinose, showed higher tolerance to 12% v/v EtOH, and exhibited a greater capacity to inhibit an olive spoilage strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae than L. plantarum from the other plant sources. Certain traits were variable between fermented olive isolates such as the capacity for biofilm formation and survival at pH 2 or 50 {degrees}C. By comparison, all L. plantarum from fruit sources grew better at a pH of 3.5 than the strains from fermented grains. Multi-locus sequence typing and genome sequencing indicated that strains from the same source type tended to be genetically related. Comparative genomics was unable to resolve strain differences, with the exception of the most phenotypically impaired and robust isolates. The findings show that L. plantarum is adapted for growth on specific plants or plant food types, but that intraspecific variation may be important for ecological fitness of L. plantarum within individual habitats.