Browsing by Author "Cai, Yida"

Bacteriocins are ribosomally synthesized antimicrobial proteins. They can be applied as biopreservatives in food processing for extending the shelf-life of food. Lactic acid bacterium Leuconostoc carnosum 4010 is Generally Recognized As Safe strain, which can be used as a protective culture in meat products. The strain 4010 produces three bacteriocins: leucocins A (LcnA), B (LebB) and C (LecC). For the secretion of bacteriocin out from the cell, bacteria usually use an ABC transporter, which is often dedicated to secrete only one bacteriocin. The leucocin operons in Ln. carnosum 4010 plasmids include genes for only one ABC transporter, namely LecXTS. The fact that Ln. carnosum 4010 produces three bacteriocins but only carries one bacteriocin transporter, raises a question, which leucocin(s) is/are translocated via LecXTS transporter. Therefore, the first aim of this study was to determine which bacteriocin(s) is/are secreted by LecXTS in Ln. carnosum 4010. Ln. carnosum 4010 carries at least two plasmids. Leucocin A gene lcnA is located on the plasmid pLC4010-2, and leucocin B and C with transporter genes (lebB, lecC, lecXTS) are located on the plasmid pLC4010-1. In a previous work, two plasmid cured derivatives of Ln. carnosum 4010 have been made: the plasmid-free strain PCS-10, and the strain PCS-11 carrying only pLC4010-2. Neither of the derivatives secrete bacteriocins. In this study, the idea was to construct five recombinant plasmids containing the pLC4010-1 replication gene repB and a gene for erythromycin resistance ErmR. They were ligated with different sets of leucocin and transporter genes (repB-lebB-lecXTS-lecC-ErmR, repB-lebB-lecXTS-ErmR, repB-lebB-ErmR, repB-lecC-ErmR, and a vector control with only repB-ErmR). The constructs were aimed to be introduced into the two Ln. carnosum 4010 mutant strains PCS-10 and PCS-11. However, after several attempts of electroporation, no colonies were obtained. To acquire a testing plasmid for optimization of transformation, the ligation mixture for the smallest plasmid repB-ErmR was electroporated into another strain, Lactococcus lactis N8. The plasmid repB-ErmR was successfully obtained from Lc. lactis N8. For improving the efficiency of transformation, the plasmid repB-ErmR was isolated from Lc. lactis N8, and the plasmid was used in optimization of electroporation. The copy number of the plasmid was shown to be very low, as only a little amount of plasmid could be isolated from large culture volume. Even with optimized electroporation method, the repB-ErmR could not be electroporated into Ln. carnosum 4010. This indicates that the larger constructions are nearly impossible to be transferred into the strain Ln. carnosum 4010. In conclusion, it was confirmed that the plasmid replication gene repB of Ln. carnosum 4010 is functional in Lc. lactis. Due to the low copy number of the plasmid repB-ErmR, the amount of plasmid was definitely a problem in electroporation. Therefore, for studying the efficiency of electroporation, the plasmid amount needs to be increased. Although the electroporation of repB-ErmR into Lc. lactis was successful, the results from Ln. carnosum electroporation after optimization indicate that the strain Ln. carnosum 4010 is difficult to be transformed.