The role of dextran production in the metabolic context of Leuconostoc and Weissella Tunisian strains 1 Norhane Besrour-Aouam1,2+, Imene Fhoula2+, Annel M. Hernández-Alcántara1 , Mª Luz Mohedano1, 2 Afef Najjari2, Alicia Prieto1, Patricia Ruas Madiedo3, Paloma López1* and Hadda-Imene Ouzari2 3 +Both of these authors contributed equally to the work 4 5 1 Margarita Salas Biological Research Centre, CIB-CSIC, Madrid, Spain 6 2 Laboratoire Microorganismes et Biomolécules Actives (LR03ES03), Faculté des Sciences de Tunis, 7 Université Tunis El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia66de Productos Lácteos de Asturias (IPLA), CSIC, 8 Villaviciosa, Asturias, Spain 9 *Corresponding author: Paloma López: Address: Margarita Salas Biological Research Centre. 10 Ramiro de Maeztu 9, 28040 Madrid, Spain. e-mail:
[email protected]. Telephone: +34 91 837 31 12. 11 Fax: +34 91 538 04 32 12 e-mails: 13 Norhane Besrour-Aouam <
[email protected]> 14 Imene Fhoula <
[email protected]> 15 Annel M. Hernández-Alcántara <
[email protected]> 16 Mª Luz Mohedano <
[email protected]> 17 Afef Najjari<
[email protected]> 18 Alicia Prieto <
[email protected]> 19 Patricia Ruas Madiedo <
[email protected]> 20 Hadda-Imene Ouzari <
[email protected]> Abbreviations: cfu, colony forming unit; Dsr, dextransucrases; EPS, exppolysaccarides; HoPS, homopolysaccharudes; GC-MS, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry; LAB, lactic acid bacteria; LDH, lactate dehydrogenase; MDH, maplate dehydrogenase; NCBI, National Center or Biotechnology Information; PEP, phosphoenolpyruvate; PYR, pyruvate; TEM, transmission electronic microscopy 21 Abstract 22 High molecular weight dextrans improve the rheological properties of fermented products, and have 23 immunomodulatory and antiviral activity. We report on 5.84x107-2.61x108 Da dextrans produced by 24 Leuconostoc lactis AV1n, Weissella cibaria AV2ou, and Weissella confusa V30 and FS54 strains.