Food Chemistry 455 (2024) 139779
2
challenge in efciently extracting its nutrient content using existing
processing approaches, resulting in signicant resource wastage. Cur-
rent cell wall breaking methods, such as repeated freezing and thawing,
ultrasonic treatment, or acid-base treatment, not only cause excessive
energy consumption, but also affect the composition of active substance.
Therefore, there is an urgent need to search better extraction methods to
signicantly increase the extraction rate of antioxidant actives from
seaweed. Microbial fermentation has emerged as an effective method to
cleave the cell wall and obtain new secondary metabolites. It has been
reported that the use of safe enzymes secreted by microbial organisms
and physiological processes within the organisms alters the physico-
chemical properties of the fermentation substrate and obtains novel
metabolites. Exploring the biological activities of these fermentation
products and their potential application in the elds of health care and
medicine represents a future direction in modern fermentation engi-
neering (Ciechanowska et al., 2024). Therefore, fermentation provides a
practical method for breaking down the cell walls of algae, such as
striped nori, which is abundant in high-quality protein. This method not
only facilitates complete cell wall disruption, but also decompose and
metabolise the macromolecules, thereby producing antioxidant pep-
tides, amino acid derivatives and other active substances. At the same
time, these active products can be further separated and puried, and
peptidomics analysis can be carried out with the help of mass spec-
trometry technology to study their potential biological activities. This
integrated approach not only achieve the purpose of resource utiliza-
tion, but also enhance the nutritional value of Porphyra, and hence,
improve the economic viability of the Porphyra industry.
Probiotics, such as lactic acid bacteria and yeasts, have demonstrated
the ability to secrete proteases and cellulases in a short period of time,
which can break down seaweed and release various active metabolites
(Ozaeta, Araújo, Estrada, Puente, & Regefalk, 2024). Yu et al. (2024)
isolated component FB-2 A from Lactiplantibacillus plantarum FB-2,
further puried and characterised it to obtain the puried component
AMP KMY 15. Co-culturing with RAW264.7 macrophages revealed that
AMP KMY 15 could uniquely act on the bacterial membrane, leading to
leakage of cell contents, and effectively inhibit the growth of Staphylo-
coccus aureus ATCC 6538 in milk (Yu et al., 2024). Gao et al. (2022)
utilized Lactobacillus plantarum MMB-05 to ferment a sandwich seaweed
product made from P. yezoensis, and found that the fermentation
signicantly increased its antioxidant activity. The fermentation process
also increased the contents of avouring nucleotides and volatiles (Gao
et al., 2022). Thinzar and Jong-Bang (2021) employed yeast and bac-
terial fermentation of a mixture of Porphyra striata and kombucha to
produce a novel functional kombucha (K-IE), which exhibited higher
total phenolic and avonoid contents as compared to black tea kom-
bucha (K-BT) and green tea kombucha (K-GT). The ferric ion reducing
ability (FRAP) of K-IE were signicantly higher than those of K-BT and
K-GT (Thinzar & Jong-Bang, 2021). It has been reported that Bacillus
subtilis can produce various dextranase enzymes specialized in the
cleavage of the cell wall, showcasing excellent ability in decomposing
organic matter and thus, holding a great potential to be used in the food
industry (M. W. Liu, Hao, et al., 2024; Liu, Shen, et al., 2024). Previous
research indicated that the fermentation of Chlorella pyrenoidosa
(C. pyrenoidosa) using Bacillus velezensis SW-37 signicantly increased
the protein extraction rate and hydrolysis degree of C. pyrenoidosa. It
provides an effective fermentation method to improve the extraction
rate of active substances from C. pyrenoidosa (R. L. Zhang, Song, Liu, &
Gao, 2023).
Relatively few studies have been conducted on mixed microbial
fermentation of seaweed and subsequent preparation of antioxidant
peptides. In a previous study, Miyu et al. (2019) investigated the
fermentation of blue-green algae Aphanizomenon os-aquae (AFA) using
L. plantarum AN7 and Lactococcus lactis subsp. The ndings revealed that
the DPPH⋅ radical scavenging capacity of the substances with molecular
weight <3 kDa and 30–100 kDa in AFA increased after fermentation. In
addition, the O
2
−
radical scavenging capacity and Fe
3+
reduction
capacity of of substances with molecular weights <3 kDa were improved
(Miyu et al., 2019). Kong, Feng, and Sun (2023) isolated crude peptides
MWCO-1 and A from fermented sausages inoculated with L. plantarum
CD101 and S. simulans NJ201. These peptides were assayed for their
protective effects against oxidative damage in Caco-2 cells and were
found to exhibit slight cytotoxicity. Further purication of fraction A led
to the identication of 14 antioxidant peptides. Among them, SDEEVEH
and FAGDDAPR showed strong DPPH⋅ radical scavenging activity, while
ALELDSNLYR and QEYDESGPSIVHR showed strong ABTS
+
⋅ scavenging
activity (Kong et al., 2023).
Only a few studies to date have examined on the preparation of
antioxidant peptides using three different strains of fermented
P. yezoensis. Previous studies targeted or focused on the optimal strains
for fermentation of seaweed were targeted from 10 different microor-
ganisms based on parameters for example viable bacterial count, pH,
cell wall-breaking rate, hydrolysis degree, protein extraction rate of
aqueous extract, and antioxidant activity. The best strains identied for
fermentation of striped seaweed were found to be B. amyloliquefaciens
MMB-02, L. plantarum L13 and S. cerevisiae A8. It would be of special
interest to investigate the fermentation process using these 3 microor-
ganism strains and understand the mechanisms underlying the
fermentation process. Therefore, this goal of this study is to study or
examine the synergistic effect of B. amyloliquefaciens MMB-02, L. plan-
tarum L13 and S. cerevisiae A8, in the fermentation of striped nori. The
crude polypeptide is extracted by aqueous acid precipitation and puri-
ed to obtain the high antioxidant activity component. Next, undiffer-
entiated analysis of the target peptide is conducted using LC-MS/MS
technique. The potential antioxidant activity of the peptides is discov-
ered through the joint use of multiple databases and their antioxidant
activity was determined. These ndings offer technical support for the
rational utilization of striped laver, contribute to the deep processing
and establish theoretical foundations for the research on the synthesis of
the antioxidant substitutes.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Materials and main reagents
P. yezoensis, a variety of “Yu Dongxiang”, was purchased from Lia-
nyungang Agricultural trade mall. After arriving at the laboratory, the
porphyroid was crushed into ne powder using an ultrane grinder and
stored in the dryer for subsequent use. L. plantarum L13 (CGMCC
NO.27398), B. amylolyticus MMB-02 (CGMCC NO.27399), S. cerevisiae
A8 were kept in the laboratory. Various culture media (MRS Liquid
medium and MRS Solid medium, PDA solid medium and PDA liquid
medium), yeast extract, tryptone, sodium chloride, agar was purchased
from Beijing Road and Bridge Technology Co., LTD. 95% ethanol and
hydrochloric acid were purchased from Nanjing Chemical Reagent Co.,
LTD., while chemical kits were acquired from Jiengcheng Biotechnology
Co., LTD. (Nanjing, China).
2.2. Sample preparation
L. plantarum L13, B. amyloliquefaciens MMB-02 and S. cerevisiae A8
were inoculated into MRS solid culture medium, LB solid culture me-
dium and PDA solid culture medium respectively from the glycerol
tubes. A single colony from each culture was selected and inoculated
into the corresponding liquid culture medium, passaged and activated
twice. To prepare the fermentation substrate, 100.0 g dried nori powder
was accurately weighed and mixed with 120 mL distilled water to form
the paste. The mixture was stirred evenly, autoclaved at 121 ◦C for 30
min, and then cooled to room temperature. Design Expert software
(version 8.0.6.1, Stat-Ease, UK) was utilized to generate mixed
fermentation experiments of L. plantarum L13 (X1), S. cerevisiae A8 (X2)
and B. amyloliquefaciens MMB-02 (X3) using a simplex lattice mix
design. The function model of these three strains with the strongest
J. Yang et al.