The maltose ABC transporter in Lactococcus lactis facilitates high-level sensitivity to the circular bacteriocin garvicin ML.

We generated and characterized a series of spontaneous mutants of Lactococcus lactis IL1403 with average 6- to 11-fold-lowered sensitivities to the circular bacteriocin garvicin ML (GarML). Carbohydrate fermentation assays highlighted changes in carbohydrate metabolism, specifically loss of the ability to metabolize starch and maltose, in these mutants. PCR and sequencing showed that a 13.5-kb chromosomal deletion encompassing 12 open reading frames, mainly involved in starch and maltose utilization, had spontaneously occurred in the GarML-resistant mutants. Growth experiments revealed a correlation between sensitivity to GarML and carbon catabolite repression (CCR); i.e., sensitivity to GarML increased significantly when wild-type cells were grown on maltose and galactose as sole carbohydrates, an effect which was alleviated by the presence of glucose. Among the genes deleted in the mutants were malEFG, which encode a CCR-regulated membrane-bound maltose ABC transporter. The complementation of mutants with these three genes recovered normal sensitivity to the bacteriocin, suggesting an essential role of the maltose ABC transporter in the antimicrobial activity of GarML. This notion was supported by the fact that the level of sensitivity to GarML was dose dependent, increasing with higher expression levels of malEFG over a 50-fold range. To our knowledge, this is the first time a specific protein complex has been demonstrated to be involved in sensitivity to a circular bacteriocin.