This first study performed on traditional fruits consumed in North Africa reveals their richness in microorganisms with beneficial attributes like cholesterol lowering capabilities. Blackberries (Rubus sp.), fresh figs (Ficus carica), and prickly pears (Opuntia ficus-indica) are fruits largely and traditionally consumed in Kabylia, a beautiful northern Algerian region. Here, 85 lactic acid bacteria (LAB)-isolates were isolated and identified by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. The identified species belong to Lactobacillus and Leuconostoc genera. These 85 LAB-isolates were then assessed for their capabilities to grow under conditions mimicking the gastrointestinal tract, and the resulting data were statistically treated with principal component analysis (PCA). After which, only 26 LAB-isolates were selected and characterized for their genetic relatedness using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) method. Following the genetic relatedness assessment, only 10 LAB-strains, among which nine Lactobacillus plantarum and one Lactobacillus paracasei were studied for their pathoproperties and some probiotic features. Interestingly, all of these 10 LAB-strains were devoid of adverse effects, but capable to adhere to human epithelial colorectal adenocarcinoma Caco-2 cells. Of note, these 10 LAB-strains exhibited an important in vitro hypocholesteromia effect, in strain-dependent manner. Moreover, the Lactobacillus strains exhibited a high bile salt hydrolase (BSH) activity which was correlated with expression of bsh2, bsh3 and bsh4 genes.

这项对北非食用的传统水果的首次研究表明，它们富含具有降低胆固醇能力等有益特性的微生物。黑莓（Rubus sp。），新鲜无花果（Ficus carica）和花椒（Opuntia ficus-indica）是水果的主要来源，传统上在美丽的阿尔及利亚北部地区卡比利亚食用。在这里，分离出85个乳酸菌（LAB）分离物，并通过MALDI-TOF质谱进行鉴定。鉴定出的物种属于乳杆菌和亮粘菌属。然后评估这85种LAB分离物在模仿胃肠道的条件下的生长能力，并使用主成分分析（PCA）对所得数据进行统计学处理。之后，仅选择了26个LAB分离株，并使用随机扩增多态性DNA（RAPD）方法对其遗传相关性进行了表征。经过遗传相关性评估，只有10株LAB菌株，其中9株植物乳杆菌和1株副干酪乳杆菌研究了它们的病理特性和益生菌特征。有趣的是，所有这10个LAB菌株都没有不良影响，但能够粘附于人上皮结肠直肠腺癌Caco-2细胞。值得注意的是，这10个LAB菌株以依赖菌株的方式表现出重要的体外降胆固醇作用。此外，乳酸杆菌菌株表现出高胆汁盐水解酶（BSH）活性，其与bsh 2，bsh 3和bsh 4基因的表达相关。