JOURNAL OF CULTURE
COLLECTIONS
Volume 4, 2004-2005, pp.
53-60
ISOLATION
AND CHARACTERIZATION OF
BACTERIOCIN
PRODUCING LACTIC ACID BACTERIA FROM
A
SOUTH INDIAN SPECIAL DOSA (APPAM) BATTER
Vijai Pal, Marilingappa Jamuna
and Kadirvelu Jeevaratnam*
Food Biotechnology Division, Defence Food Research
Laboratory,
Siddarthanagar, Mysore-570 011, India
Summary
Lactic
acid bacteria (LAB) commonly used as starter cultures in food are known to
produce antimicrobial substances such as bacteriocins, having great potential
as food biopreservatives. The present study was aimed at isolating
bacteriocinogenic LAB from a traditional fermented food, “Appam”. Twenty five
colonies of LAB were isolated and screened for bacteriocin production
potential. Ten isolates showed good antimicrobial activity against
Gram-positive viz., Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus,
Listeria monocytogenes as well as Gram-negative viz., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Aeromonas hydrophila microorganisms. During characterization of these strains
two of them were found to resemble two other strains. One of the bacilli
has been reported earlier. Therefore,
in this study characterization of 7 isolates through morphological,
physiological, biochemical and carbohydrate fermentation tests as well as cell
wall protein profiles have been reported. Five of them were cocci, identified
as Pediococcus pentosaceous (4
strains) and the other as Tetragenococcus halophilus, while the remaining two
being rods and were found to be Lactobacillus plantarum.