Abstract
The basic requirement for probiotic bacteria to be able to perform expected positive effects is to be alive. Therefore, appropriate quantification methods are crucial. Bacterial quantification based on nucleic acid detection is increasingly used. Spray-drying (SD) is one of the possibilities to improve the survival of probiotic bacteria against negative environmental effects. The aim of this study was to investigate the survival of spray-dried Lactobacillus plantarum 564 and Lactobacillus paracasei Z-8, and to investigate the impact on some probiotic properties caused by SD of both tested strains. Besides the plate count technique, the aim was to examine the possibility of using propidium monoazide (PMA) in combination with real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for determining spray-dried tested strains. The number of intact cells, Lb. plantarum 564 and Lb. paracasei Z-8, was determined by real-time PCR with PMA, and it was similar to the number of investigated strains obtained by the plate count method. Spray-dried Lb. plantarum 564 and Lb. paracasei Z-8 demonstrated very good probiotic ability. It may be concluded that the PMA real-time PCR determination of the viability of probiotic bacteria could complement the plate count method and SD may be a cost-effective way to produce large quantities of some probiotic cultures.
Highlights
The majority of autochthonous microflora of traditional dairy products are lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and their variety is a result of the great number by different strains
Most probiotic bacteria belong to the Lactobacillus genera and Bifidobacterium strains (Prasad et al, 1998)
We examined the possibility of using propidium monoazide (PMA) in combination with real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with SYBR Green I chemistry for selective quantification of live tested strain cells after SD
Summary
The majority of autochthonous microflora of traditional dairy products are lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and their variety is a result of the great number by different strains. Beside selection for their application as starter or adjunct cultures (Radulović et al, 2011), their selection as a potential probiotic is relatively new. Probiotics have recently been defined as “live microbes which transit the gastrointestinal tract and in doing so benefit the health of the consumer” (Tannock et al, 2000) They are capable of surviving the low pH in the stomach. Researchers have found that there is no difference in microbial viability between spray drying and freeze-drying
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