African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 4 (3), pp. 262-265, March 2005          
ISSN 1684–5315 © 2005 Academic Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Increase of nisin production by Lactococcus lactis in different media

Angela Faustino Jozala¹, Letícia Célia de Lencastre Novaes¹, Olivia Cholewa², Dante Moraes¹, Thereza Christina Vessoni Penna^1*

¹Department of Biochemical and Pharmaceutical Technology

School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of São Paulo /SP, Brasil

²Molecular Probes, Inc., Eugene, Or, USA. 97402. Email: olivia.cholewa@probes.com.

*Correspondingauthor. E-Mail: tcvpenna@usp.br.

Accepted December, 2004

Nisin production related to the growth conditions of Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis ATCC 11454, the effects of various media components and concomitant release of nisin into the media, were studied through transfers (five times). Nisin production was assayed by agar diffusion using Lactobacillus sake ATCC 15521 as the sensitive test organism. The expression of nisin was strongly influenced by the addition of skimmed milk to both MRS and M17 broth, with the highest production obtained after the second and the fifth transfers, respectively, with maximum expression after 36 h of incubation.

Key words: Nisin, Lactococcus lactis, Lactobacillus sake, bacteriocin, milk.