A novel high-level phenyllactic acid fungal producer, Kodamaea ohmeri w5 screened from fermented broad bean-chili-paste

Phenyllactic acid (PLA) is a broad-spectrum and efficient antimicrobial phenolic acid with potential applications in the food industry. Previous studies have demonstrated that fungi may be ideal producers of PLA. In this study, 15 fungi screened from Doubanjiang with the ability to produce PLA were first reported, including Wickerhamomyces anomalus, Candida etchellsii, Candida parasitosis, Pichia kudriavzevii, Pichia membranifaciens and Kodamaea ohmeri. Among them, K. ohmeri w5 had the highest PLA yield, producing up to 7160 mg/L PLA in shake flask fermentation with phenylalanine as substrate, which was more than ten times higher than the PLA produced by wild-type LAB under the similar conditions. In addition, K. ohmeri w5 was able to grow under extreme hypertonic conditions of 20 % NaCl (w/v) and 50 % glucose (w/v) as well as produce 57.12 ± 0.42 and 1609.22 ± 36.26 mg/L of PLA, respectively. Furthermore, the fermentation supernatant of K. ohmeri w5 demonstrated direct inhibitory effects against foodborne pathogenic microorganisms, Aspergillus flavus and Bacillus cereus. However, the inhibitory effect was weaker than that of the PLA standard at the same concentration. Further, 12,497,932 bp of w5 genome-wide information was obtained by sequencing and assembling. And its gene model was predicted based on transcriptomic evidence, which showed that a total of 7 genes related to PLA synthesis were identified in the w5 genome. Based on qRT-PCR, structure prediction, and molecular docking, a potentially key genetic resource from K. ohmeri w5 for PLA production was uncovered. The results will provide novel producers of PLA and its potential genetic resources. •Fifteen fungal strains from Doubanjiang were able to produce phenyllactic acid (PLA).•K. ohmeri w5 produced over 10 times more PLA than LAB strains in similar conditions.•K. ohmeri w5 could produce PLA under extreme hypertonic conditions.•A potentially efficient gene for PLA production in K. ohmeri w5 was identified.