Many lactobacilli including L. plantarum are unusual in that they can respire oxygen and express cytochromes if heme and menaquinone are present in the growth medium.

[11][12] In the absence of heme and menaquinone, oxygen is consumed by NADH-peroxidase with hydrogen peroxide as intermediate and water as end product.

In place of the protective enzyme superoxide dismutase present in almost all other oxygen-tolerant cells, this organism accumulates millimolar quantities of manganese polyphosphate.

[14][15] L. plantarum uses extracellular electron transfer to increase the NAD+/NADH ratio, accelerate fermentation, generate more ATP through the substrate-level phosphorylation, and accumulate more biomass.

During the anaerobic conditions of ensilage, these organisms quickly dominate the microbial population, and, within 48 hours, they begin to produce lactic and acetic acids via the Embden-Meyerhof Pathway, further diminishing their competition.

L. plantarum is also found in dadiah, a traditional fermented buffalo milk of the Minangkabau people, native to Sumatra, Indonesia.

[24] The ability of L. plantarum to survive in the human gastro-intestinal tract makes it a possible in vivo delivery vehicle for therapeutic compounds or proteins.

This proprietary, standardized formulation of live bacteria may be used in combination with conventional therapies to treat ulcerative colitis and requires a prescription.

[citation needed] As a result of initial HIV infection, the gut has been found to be a prime center of immune activity.

[26] The immune systems' Paneth cells of the gut attack HIV by producing interleukin 1 beta (IL-1β), which results in extensive collateral damage—sloughing of tight intestinal lining, witnessed as severe diarrhea.

[26] The entire genome has recently been sequenced, and promoter libraries have been developed for both conditional and constitutive gene expression, adding to the utility of L. plantarum.