Chapter 16 - Bacteriocin producing lactic acid bacteria: Their relevance to human nutrition and health

Abstract

Bacteriocin producing lactic acid bacteria (LAB) exhibits broad range of antibacterial activity against some of the major food borne pathogens and spoilage causing bacteria. Additionally, they have bactericidal activity against species strictly linked to the producer bacterium. LAB has been used in food fermentations since ancient times because of their ability to show nutrition, organoleptic properties, and shelf life of foods. This is mainly due to their ability to synthesize antimicrobial peptides and bacteriocins that they have become promising organisms with multitude of applications. The most significant attention for this chapter is as follows: bacteriocin producing lactic acid bacteria is on their potential applications in food preservation, human health, industry, and agriculture. Many of the resistance mutants of LAB that produce the bacteriocin caused alterations in the cell envelope, together with the change in the fatty acid composition of the membrane. The resistance in the bacteria results from modification of bacterial membrane composition, destruction of the bacteriocin by proteases, or sometimes altered receptors. Therefore the protective effect of bacteriocins against contaminating pathogens has been assessed most frequently with food systems.