Evaluation of thermostable catalase-peroxidase AfKatG supplementation on toxicity of residual hydrogen peroxide in cultivation media of lactic acid bacteria from starter cultures

Year, pages: 455 - 460

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are exceptionally important strains in food industry. It is a heterogeneous group sharing same metabolic and physiological properties. They are usually catalase-negative strains, which represents a big disadvantage in food production in comparison with pathogenic bacteria as staphylococci and listeria existing in the same environment, because of the use of hydrogen peroxide as a disinfection agent which is utilized by catalases. We focused on increase in LAB surviving through the disinfection without any positive effect on growth of pathogenic bacteria. In our functional test hydrogen peroxide was used for disinfection. Ten mM thermostable catalase-peroxidase AfKatG was added to solid media to cultivate bacteria afterwards. As predicted there was no difference in the growth of pathogenic bacteria with or without catalase-peroxidase addition to media. However, we showed a huge positive effect on surviving LAB. With addition of AfKatG to solid media we gained 2–38 times higher CFU/ml than in control samples without it. We can assume AfKatG as an excellent supplement for growth media of food strains.

Publisher: Institute of Molecular Physiology and Genetics SAS