Lactic acid bacteria fermentation enhances chickpea protein digestibility by suppressing aggregation and remodeling...

This study investigated the hierarchical structure and aggregation behavior of lactic acid bacteria fermented chickpea proteins during in vitro digestion. Physical disintegration analysis revealed that fermentation reduced particle size (D₅₀) by 60.24% and increased specific surface area by 52.64%. Consequently, protein aggregation was alleviated during early intestinal digestion (150 min). Conformationally, fermentation decreased β-sheet content (from 40.26% to 31.59%) and induced tertiary structure disruption. This conformational unfolding exposed cleavage sites, enhancing the hydrolysis of 7S and 11S subunits. Biochemically, the process lowered lipoxygenase activity by 46.30% (120 min), thereby mitigating lipid oxidation and preventing protein-fat aggregation. Synergistically, these effects improved protein solubility throughout gastrointestinal digestion. As a result, the release of low-molecular-weight peptides (<3 kDa) and free amino acids was boosted. Collectively, these findings elucidated the structural mechanism by which fermentation enhances protein digestibility. This work offers a targeted processing strategy to improve the nutritional potential of plant proteins.