It is common practice to freeze dry probiotic bacteria to improve their shelf life. However, the freeze drying process itself can be detrimental to their viability. The viability of probiotics could be maintained if they are administered within a microbially produced biodegradable polymer - poly-?-glutamic acid (?-PGA) - matrix. Although the antifreeze activity of ?-PGA is well known, it has not been used for maintaining the viability of probiotic bacteria during freeze drying. The aim of this study was to test the effect of ?-PGA (produced byÿB. subtilisÿnatto ATCC 15245) on the viability of probiotic bacteria during freeze drying and to test the toxigenic potential ofÿB. subtilisÿnatto. 10% ?-PGA was found to protectÿLactobacillus paracaseiÿsignificantly better than 10% sucrose, whereas it showed comparable cryoprotectant activity to sucrose when it was used to protectBifidobacterium breveÿandÿBifidobacterium longum. Although ?-PGA is known to be non-toxic, it is crucial to ascertain the toxigenic potential of its source,ÿB. subtilisÿnatto. Presence of six genes that are known to encode for toxins were investigated: three component hemolysin (hbl D/A), three component non-haemolytic enterotoxin (nheB),ÿB. cereusÿenterotoxin T (bceT), enterotoxin FM (entFM), sphingomyelinase (sph) and phosphatidylcholine-specific phospholipase (piplc). From our investigations, none of these six genes were present inÿB. subtilisÿnatto. Moreover, haemolytic and lecithinase activities were found to be absent. Our work contributes a biodegradable polymer from a non-toxic source for the cryoprotection of probiotic bacteria, thus improving their survival during the manufacturing process.
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Author Name: Aditya R Bhat, Victor U Irorere, Terry Bartlett, David Hill, Gopal Kedia, Mark R Morris, Dimitris Charalampopoulos, Iza Radecka
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Keywords: 21910855,Bacillus subtilisÿnatto: a non-toxic source of poly-?-glutamic acid that could be used as a cryoprotectant for probiotic bacteria,21910855,Aditya R Bhat, Victor U Irorere, Terry Bartlett, David Hill, Gopal Kedia, Mark R Morris, Dimitris Charalampopoulos, Iza Radecka
ISSN: 21910855
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