Abstract
An ever-growing demand for food products with minimal chemical additives has generated a necessity for exploring new alternatives for food preservation. In this context, more recently, bacteriocins, the peptides having antimicrobial property, synthesized ribosomally by numerous bacteria have been attracting a lot of attention. They are known to possess the potential to restrict the growth of microorganisms causing food spoilage without causing any harm to the bacteria themselves owing to the presence of self-defensive proteins. In particular, the bacteriocins of lactic acid bacteria have been considered harmless and safe for consumption and are indicated to evade the development of unwanted bacteria. Use of bacteriocins as biopreservatives has been studied in various food industries, and they have been established to elevate the shelf life of minimally processed food items by exerting killing mechanism. They restrict the growth of undesirable bacteria by breaking the target cell membrane and finally resulting into pore formation. The current article provides an insight on bacteriocins of lactic acid bacteria, their biosynthesis, mechanism of action, and promising applications of these antimicrobial peptides in the food sector.
Highlights
Most of the commercially available food preservatives are synthesized chemically, causing a lot of toxic effect on human health
Bacteriocins of class II show a killing action against related organisms and cause depolarization and cell death by easy insertion into the cell membrane due to their amphiphilic nature. These bacteriocins are capable of disturbing the pH gradient and transmembrane potential of cells which results in scattering of proton motive force; it is reported that this dispersal of proton motive force is believed to be their key action for exerting the fatal activity [42, 43]
Bacteriocins produced by Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) act as a weapon used by the bacterial cells to fight against other competing bacteria
Summary
Most of the commercially available food preservatives are synthesized chemically, causing a lot of toxic effect on human health. These are known to show preservative effect owing to their capability to produce hydrogen peroxide, organic acids, diacyls, and bacteriocins. Production of bacteriocin depends on their genetic determinants; genes for bacteriocin production are reported to be localized either on plasmid or chromosomes [3]. These antibacterial peptides are synthesized on ribosomes and are known to show a bactericidal activity against identical or approximately related species [1]. Bacteriocins confer their bactericidal mode of action by creating a pore in the target cell, helping in combating the food pathogens
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