Abstract
Weissella koreensis is a psychrophilic bacterium that is the dominant species found in kimchi and exhibits anti-obesity effects via its production of ornithine. In this study, we mined the genome of W. koreensis KACC15510 to identify species-specific genes that can serve as new targets for the detection and quantification of W. koreensis in kimchi. A specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) primer set for the membrane protein-encoding gene of W. koreensis KACC15510 was designed and investigated to quantify its sensitivity and specificity for detecting the bacterium in kimchi. The specificity of the primer set was evaluated using genomic DNA from eight isolates of W. koreensis, 11 different species of Weissella and 13 other reference lactic acid bacterium (LAB) strains. In addition, red pepper powder was observed to strongly influence the density of W. koreensis during kimchi fermentation.
Highlights
Weissella koreensis is a psychrophilic bacterium that is the dominant species found in kimchi and exhibits anti-obesity effects via its production of ornithine
Our results revealed that this SYBR Green quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR)-based method can be used for the specific detection and quantification of W. koreensis in various products
Using this real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay, we found that red pepper powder greatly influences the density of W. koreensis during kimchi fermentation
Summary
Weissella koreensis is a psychrophilic bacterium that is the dominant species found in kimchi and exhibits anti-obesity effects via its production of ornithine. A specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) primer set for the membrane protein-encoding gene of W. koreensis KACC15510 was designed and investigated to quantify its sensitivity and specificity for detecting the bacterium in kimchi. The specificity of the primer set was evaluated using genomic DNA from eight isolates of W. koreensis, 11 different species of Weissella and 13 other reference lactic acid bacterium (LAB) strains. An earlier study has reported that W. koreensis inhibits the germination of target microorganism spores during food fermentation and exhibits an anti-obesity effect by producing the non-protein amino acid (a.a.) ornithine[3]. Many multiplex PCR and chromogenic DNA macroarray systems for simultaneous amplification of several genes in a single assay have been developed These methods exhibit limitations: detecting target cells in mixtures with significantly different bacteria ratios or in food samples remains a challenge[7]. Bacterial membrane proteins are diverse in structure and function and vary significantly in size, with residue lengths that range from 200 to 650 a.a.8
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