Removal of Histamine from Fish Sauce by Staphylococcus debuckii sp. Isolated from Fermented Fish

Research background

One of the issues in the production of fish sauce is the legal constraints on the concentration of histamine produced by bacteria during fermentation because it causes allergic reactions in humans. The goal of this study is therefore to eliminate histamine from the final product after fermentation to enhance the quality of fish sauce for consumer safety, manufacturer exportability and domestic sales.

Experimental approach

The bacteria that grow in the histamine medium were isolated from the salted fish. Their ability to degrade histamine in the media with high NaCl content was tested. The bacterium with the highest histamine-degrading ability was identified and the histamine-degrading conditions were optimized, including the incubation temperature and the amount of NaCl in the medium. The regression equation was generated and tested using the local fish sauce in which different concentrations of histamine were added.

Results and conclusions

Among the five bacteria isolated from the salted fish, the isolate with the greatest ability to degrade histamine was identified as Staphylococcus debuckii sp. The study of the capacity of the isolated bacteria to degrade histamine using the synthetic histamine broth (pH=7.0, t=25 °C and NaCl 25 % (m/V)) indicated that they were able to degrade up to 56 % of histamine. The optimization analysis showed that increasing the pH of the medium to 7.5 and lowering the incubation temperature to 20 °C could improve the histamine removal from 56 to 73 %. The generated regression model, validated by the experimental results of histamine removal from fish sauce, showed an acceptable error (not more than 10 %). S. debuckii, the isolated histamine-degrading bacteria, could be used as an inoculum to reduce histamine accumulated in fish products.

Novelty and scientific contribution

The microbiological technique developed here can decrease the histamine concentration in the final product, fish sauce, to improve its quality in terms of food safety and satisfy the histamine regulation requirement. The findings of this study can also be used to treat other liquid foods that contain high concentrations of histamine.

Overexpression of the OLE1 gene enhances ethanol fermentation by Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The fermentation characteristics of Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains which overexpress a constitutive OLE1 gene were studied to clarify the relationship between the fatty acid composition of this yeast and its ethanol productivity. The growth yield and ethanol productivity of these strains in the medium containing 15% dextrose at 10 degrees C were greater than those of the control strains under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions but this difference was not observed under other culture conditions. During repeated-batch fermentation, moreover, the growth yield and ethanol productivity of the wild-type S. cerevisiae increased gradually and then were similar to those of the OLE1-overexpressing transformant in the last batch fermentation. However, the unsaturated fatty acid content (77.6%) of the wild-type cells was lower than that (86.2%) of the OLE1-recombinant cells. These results suggested that other phenomena caused by the overexpression of the OLE1 gene, rather than high unsaturated fatty acid content, are essential to ethanol fermentation by this yeast.

Polyunsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: expression of ethanol tolerance and the FAD2 gene from Arabidopsis thaliana

The Arabidopsis thaliana delta-12 fatty acid desaturase gene (FAD2) was overexpressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by using the GAL1 promoter. S. cerevisiae harboring the FAD2 gene was capable of forming hexadecadienoyl (16:2) and linoleoyl (18:2) residues in the membrane lipid when cultured in medium containing galactose. Gas-liquid chromatography analysis of total lipids indicated that the transformed S. cerevisiae accumulated these dienoic fatty acyl residues and that they accounted for approximately 50% of the total fatty acyl residues. Phospholipid analysis of this strain indicated that the oleoyl (18:1) residue binding phosphatidylcholine (PC) was mostly converted to the 18:2 residue binding PC, whereas 50% of the palmitoleoyl (16:1) residue binding PC was converted to the 16:2 residue binding PC. A marked effect on the unsaturation of 16:1 and 18:1 was observed when S. cerevisiae harboring the FAD2 gene was cultured at 8 degrees C. To assess the ethanol tolerance of S. cerevisiae producing polyunsaturated fatty acids, the cell viability of this strain in the presence of ethanol was examined. The results indicated that S. cerevisiae cells overexpressing the FAD2 gene had greater resistance to 15% (vol/vol) ethanol than did the control cells.

Metabolism of L-amino acids in a marine bacterium isolated from mackerel intestines in relation to eicosapentaenoic acid biosynthesis

Metabolism of glucose and L-amino acids in an obligately aerobic marine bacterium isolated from Pacific mackerel intestines was investigated for the mechanism and pathway of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) biosynthesis. This bacterium could not uptake glucose but the cell-free extract of this bacterium had the enzymatic activities of L-alanine oxidase (EC 1.4.3.2), L-alanine dehydrogenase (EC 1.4.1.1). L-serine dehydratase (EC 4.2.1.13), and malate dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.40), and of seven enzymes involved in the TCA cycle of the usual aerobes. On the other hand, the carbon-13 concentration in cellular fatty acids of the bacterium, especially that in their methyl carbon atoms in contrast to their carbonyl carbons, increased drastically when the bacterium was grown in the presence of 13CH3COONa. These results indicate that: (i) the TCA cycle works in this bacterium, (ii) glucose is not utilized and pyruvic acid is in vivo synthesized from L-alanine, L-serine, and malic acid, and (iii) EPA and other cellular fatty acids are in vivo synthesized from acetyl coenzyme A by the usual de novo synthesis route.