Altered cell surface hydrophobicity of Lactobacillus paracasei KLB58 isolated from human vagina

초록

In previous study, we have isolated Lactobacillus spp. from healthy human vagina and examined various characteristics such as antimicrobial substance production and exopolysaccharide (EPS) production. It is known that an EPS is an important factor of Lactobacillus spp. to adhere to epithelial cell. We have selected L. paracasei KLB58 having high antimicrobial activity and EPS production. In this study, we performed NTG(1-Methyl-3-nitro-1-nitrosoguanidine) mutagenesis to isolate an EPS deficienct mutant of KLB58 showing high cell surface hydrophobicity (CSH) compared to wild type strain. By monitoring the kinetics of the partition with hexadecane the EPS mutant was found to be far more hydrophobic than the wild type strain ; the CSH of the EPS mutant was 0.5-fold higher than the wild type strain.