Exploitation of the diverse insertion sequence element content of dairy Lactobacillus helveticus starters as a rapid method to identify different strains

Gene knockout and overexpression analysis revealed the role of N-acetylmuramidase in autolysis of Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus ljj-6

Autolysis of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) plays a vital role in dairy processing. During cheese making, autolysis of LAB affects cheese flavor development through release of intracellular enzymes and restricts the proliferation of cells in yogurt fermentation and probiotics production. In order to explore the mechanism of autolysis, the gene for the autolytic enzymes of L. bulgaricus, N-acetylmuramidase (mur), was cloned and sequenced (GenBank accession number: KF157911). Mur gene overexpression and gene knockout vectors were constructed based on pMG76e and pUC19 vectors. Recombinant plasmids were transformed into L. bulgaricus ljj-6 by electroporation, then three engineered strains with pMG76e-mur vector and fifteen engineered strains with pUC19-mur::EryBII were screened. The autolysis of the mur knockout strain was significantly lower and autolysis of the mur overexpressed strain was significantly higher compared with that of the wild type strain ljj-6. This result suggested that the mur gene played an important role in autolysis of L. bulgaricus. On the other hand, autolytic activity in a low degree was still observed in the mur knockout strain, which implied that other enzymes but autolysin encoded by mur were also involved in autolysis of L. bulgaricus.

Selected properties of lactic acid bacteria isolated from raw cow's milk

For the identification of lactic acid bacteria derived from raw cow's milk, 151 colonies were isolated. The grow conditions of lactic acid bacteria were at temperature 37 °C for 3 days on MRS medium. Based on microscopical preparation, negative catalase and Gram-positive test were 81 isolates confirmed as genus Lactobacillus. Out of these, 9 isolates were evaluated for acidifying activity in UHT milk at 25 °C, 30 °C and 37 °C at regular intervals during 24 hours. The average count of NSLAB lactobacilli in raw cow's milk reached the value 1.54.104 KTJ.ml-1. It was found that all tested strains of lactobacilli did not cause significant changes of titratable acidity in milk at 25 °C and 30 °C. Only one strain significantly improved the titratable acidity of milk at 37 °C after 24 hours. The acidity reached the value from 7.5 °SH to 41.9 °SH. This strain was confirmed by PCR method as Lactobacillus helveticus.

Characterisation of Lactobacillus helveticus strains producing antihypertensive peptides by RAPD and inverse-PCR of IS elements

Lactobacillus helveticus is used for the manufacture of cheeses and milk-based products. Although it is not considered a probiotic microorganism, some strains demonstrated beneficial effects through the production of antihypertensive peptides from the hydrolysis of casein during milk fermentation. Strain-specificity of bioactive peptide production by L. helveticus makes the availability of reliable typing methods essential for both legal and good manufacturing processes. Accordingly, RAPD and inverse-PCR of five insertion sequence elements were comparatively evaluated for the molecular characterisation of four L. helveticus dairy cultures producing antihypertensive peptides and fourteen reference strains. Calculation of discriminatory indices and cluster analysis of the DNA fingerprints confirmed the suitability of both approaches for acceptable strain differentiation. Although RAPD was more discriminating, for a few test strains a neat discrimination was only achieved through multiplex inverse-PCR, thus suggesting the suitability of a combined analytical approach for a finer strain discrimination.