Bacteriocin-like activity production and resistance in selected enterococci and streptococci of animal origin

Abstract

Antimicrobial proteins and peptides produced by bacteria, termed bacteriocins, are widely acknowledged to be important contributors to their producer organism survival. Enterocin A, enterocin B, enterocin P and enterolysin A belong to the best studied enterocins, i.e., bacteriocins produced by enterococci and streptococci. Twenty-one enterococcal and seven streptococcal isolates were analysed for bacteriocin-like activity production and resistance by overlay test. Up to 50% of tested strains showed antibacterial activity at least against one indicator strain. The occurrence of enterocin B structural gene in several isolates was confirmed by PCR method. The results of this study should broaden knowledge of bacteriocin-like activity production and resistance among gram-positive bacteria.

Keywords:

• Gram-positive cocci
• microbial activities
• enterocin

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Grant Agency VEGA (Grant No. 2/2044/22 and 2/3064/23). The authors thank Dr Whitford from the Lethbridge Research Centre in Canada and Dr Nes from Gene Technology Laboratory of the Agricultural University of Norway for kindly providing some of strains used in this study.