Two of the most common preservative
conditions employed in meat processing are
low temperatures and high salt concentrations. L. sakei is remarkably well equipped
to cope with these conditions. It contains
several transporters for osmoprotective substances and has more cold stress proteins
than other lactobacilli. L. sakei has psychrotrophic and osmotolerant properties, and is
able to grow at low temperatures and in the
presence of up to 10% sodium chloride
(NaCl). These physiological features are
associated with the presence in its genome of
a higher number of genes coding for stress -
response proteins, such as cold shock and
osmotolerance proteins, than found in other
lactobacilli. L. sakei lacks proteins involved
in adhesion to intestinal mucous, but its
genome codes for numerous proteins that
may be involved in adhesion to the meat
surface (e.g., to collagen), aggregation,
and biofi lm formation. Thus, the bacterium
seems well equipped to adhere to and spread
on a meat surface (Eijsink and Axelsson
2005 ).