Influence of culture media, pH and temperature on growth and bacteriocin production of bacteriocinogenic lactic acid bacteria.

There has been continued interest in bacteriocins research from an applied perspective as bacteriocins have potential to be used as natural preservative. Four bacteriocinogenic lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains of Lactobacillus curvatus (Arla-10), Enterococcus faecium (JFR-1), Lactobacillus paracasei subsp. paracasei (JFR-5) and Streptococcus thermophilus (TSB-8) were previously isolated and identified in our lab. The objective of this study was to determine the optimal growth conditions for both LAB growth and bacteriocins production. In this study, various growth conditions including culture media (MRS and BHI), initial pH of culture media (4.5, 5.5, 6.2, 7.4 and 8.5), and incubation temperatures (20, 37 and 44 °C) were investigated for LAB growth measured as optical density (OD), bacteriocin activity determined as arbitrary unit and viability of LAB expressed as log CFU ml-1. Growth curves of the bacteriocinogenic LAB were generated using a Bioscreen C. Our results indicated that Arla-10, JFR-1, and JFR-5 strains grew well on both MRS and BHI media at growth temperature tested whereas TSB-8 strain, unable to grow at 20 °C. LAB growth was significantly affected by the initial pH of culture media (p < 0.001) and the optimal pH was found ranging from 6.2 to 8.5. Bacteriocin activity was significantly different in MRS versus BHI (p < 0.001), and the optimal condition for LAB to produce bacteriocins was determined in MRS broth, pH 6.2 at 37 °C. This study provides useful information on potential application of bacteriocinogenic LAB in food fermentation processes.