摘要：Bacteriocins produced by probiotic strains effectively contribute to colonization ability of probiotic strains and facilitate their establishment in the competitive gut environment and also protect the gut from gastrointestinal pathogens. Moreover, bacteriocins have received considerable attention due to their potential application as biopreservatives, especially in dairy industry. Hence, the objective of this research was to investigate antimicrobial activity of probiotic strains Lactobacillus helveticus M92, Lactobacillus plantarum L4 and Enterococcus faecium L3, with special focus on their bacteriocinogenic activity directed towards representatives of the same or related bacterial species, and towards distant microorganisms including potential food contaminants or causative agents of gut infections. In order to induce bacteriocin production, probiotic cells were cocultivated with Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis LMG 9450, one of the most important starter cultures in cheese production. The presence of bacteriocin coding genes was investigated by PCR amplification with sequence-specific primers for helveticin and was confirmed for probiotic strain L. helveticus M92. All examined probiotic strains have shown bacteriocinogenic activity against Staphylococcus aureus 3048, Staphylococcus aureus K-144, Escherichia coli 3014, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium FP1, Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6633, Bacillus cereus TM2, which is an important functional treat of probiotic strains significant in competitive exclusion mechanism which provides selective advantage of probiotic strains against undesirable microorganisms in gastrointestinal tract of the host. According to obtained results, living cells of starter culture Lc. lactis subsp. lactis LMG 9450 induced bacteriocin production by examined probiotic strains but starter culture itself was not sensitive to bacteriocin activity.
关键词：antimicrobial activity; bacteriocins; induction of bacteriocin biosynthesis; probiotics
