To investigate carbohydrate preference of a potential probiotic, Lactobacillus rhamnosus FSMM15, six prebiotics, including two milk-derived prebiotics, galactooligosaccharides and lacto-N-biose I, and four plant-origin prebiotics, beet oligosaccharide syrup, difructose anhydride III, fructooligosaccharides, and raffinose, were examined. The strain utilized the milk-derived prebiotics at similar levels to glucose but did not utilize the plant-origin ones in the same manner, reflecting their genetic background, which allows them to adapt to dairy ecological niches. These prebiotics had little influence on the expression pattern of cell surface-associated proteins in the strain; however, an ATP-binding cassette transporter substrate-binding protein and a glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase were suggested to be upregulated in response to carbon starvation stress.
Keywords: ABC transporter substrate-binding protein; glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase; lacto-N-biose I; starvation-stress response.