Integrated ¹H-NMR Metabolomics and Growth Kinetics Uncover Three Distinct Metabolic Scenarios in Lactiplantibacillus pentosus P7 Fermentation of Plant-Derived Prebiotics.

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) drive a broad range of food and biotechnological fermentations, the outcomes of which depend not only on the bacterial genotype but also on the chemical composition of the fermentation substrate. To resolve how a single strain reorganises chemically distinct plant matrices, we profiled fermentations of Lactiplantibacillus pentosus P7 (GenBank JBLMKZ000000000) on garlic, onion, and kiwifruit extracts prepared in water and 70% ethanol, using growth kinetics combined with solvent-suppressed 500-MHz proton nuclear magnetic resonance metabolomics over 48 h, and integrated the data with whole-genome pathway annotations. Three substrate-specific metabolic scenarios emerged. On garlic, P7 grew vigorously, with the water extract exceeding the de Man-Rogosa-Sharpe reference medium at every time point (peak ΔOD₆₀₀ of 9.38 versus 8.52 at 24 h) and accumulating sorbose, rhamnose, and the aromatic amino acids phenylalanine and tryptophan (3.04- to 3.70-fold increases), providing first metabolic evidence consistent with the strain's four-copy aroE shikimate-dehydrogenase expansion. On onion, the lowest cell density coincided with the highest lactate output of the dataset (5.21-fold rise at 48 h), transient 5-hydroxymethylfurfural reduction, and accumulation of acetoin and 1,3-propanediol, mapping onto a redundant set of pyridine-nucleotide-dependent oxidoreductases and a pdu-independent diol pathway. On kiwifruit, citrate accumulated 8.9-fold at 16 h and then declined, consistent with an intact citCDEFG citrate-lyase operon paired with absence of canonical oxidative tricarboxylic acid enzymes. The optimal extraction solvent was substrate-dependent, water for garlic and ethanol for onion and kiwifruit. Overall, these results show that substrate chemistry, rather than strain identity, dictates which genome-encoded pathways P7 engages, establishing P7 as a versatile, substrate-tunable platform for the functional fermentation and biorefining of furanic-rich substrate streams. Raw NMR data and ISA-Tab metadata are available via MetaboLights with identifier MTBLS14463.