A new chemically defined medium for wine lactic acid bacteria

Growth and activity of lactic acid bacteria is crucial for the production and quality of grape wines but studying their metabolism is difficult in wines or complex laboratory media because of the undefined substrate pools. This work presents a new chemically defined medium that meets the fastidious nutritional requirements of wine lactic acid bacteria and yields rapid and strong growth. The new medium is composed of 44 constituents and a precise protocol is provided for its preparation. Maximum specific growth rates and growth yields of the wine strains studied were comparable to those obtained in common laboratory media, and the new medium allows for various modifications, such as changing the medium pH to the wine range, addition of L-malic acid or utilization of different carbon sources while maintaining growth of wine lactic acid bacteria. The medium was successfully tested with 22 wine strains of the genera Oenococcus, Lactobacillus and Pediococcus. It is suggested that this chemically defined medium be considered for the investigation of the nutritional requirements and metabolism of wine lactic acid bacteria. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.