Functional Properties of Lactic Acid Bacteria Isolated from Romanian Fermented Vegetables

A total of 139 lactic acid bacterium (LAB) strains isolated from Romanian traditionally fermented vegetables were screened for the ability to produce exopolysaccharides and for their antagonistic activity against a set of nine LAB strains, three Bacillus strains, and four Gram-negative bacteria. Eighty-five of the tested strains showed a variable antimicrobial activity against Listeria monocytogenes ATCC 1911, 35 of the strains showed a limited inhibition zone against Escherichia coli ATCC25922, and 26 strains against Salmonella enterica ATCC 14024, while 19 strains showed inhibition against one or all three Bacillus strains used as indicators. None of the tested strains showed an antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923. Several strains showed antibacterial activity against more than one indicator strain. For instance, Lactobacillus plantarum 307, Lactobacillus brevis 308, and Lactobacillus plantarum/pentosus 358 were active against five of the indicator strains used, while other 23 LAB were active against three indicator strains. In the case of two strains, namely Leuconostoc citreum 344 and Lactobacillus brevis 183, the activity was maintained after neutralizing the pH of the cell-free supernatant likely due to the production of bacteriocins. The gel permeation chromatography-based screening revealed seven EPS-producing LAB strains. Two of the positive strains, namely Leuconostoc citreum 177 and Leuconostoc citreum 52, have been shown to produce large amounts of EPS, of about 20 g/L. All isolated EPS have a high molecular mass, of above 1400 KDa, and a monomer composition dominated by the presence of glucose.     

Microbes versus microbes: control of pathogens in the food chain

Foodborne illness continues as a considerable threat to public health. Despite improved hygiene management systems and increased regulation, pathogenic bacteria still contaminate food, causing sporadic cases of illness and disease outbreaks worldwide. For many centuries, microbial antagonism has been used in food processing to improve food safety. An understanding of the mode of action of this microbial antagonism has been gained in recent years and potential applications in food and feed safety are now being explored. This review focuses on the potential opportunities presented, and the limitations, of using microbial antagonism as a biocontrol mechanism to reduce contamination along the food chain; including animal feed as its first link. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry     

乳酸菌中共培养诱导细菌素产生机制的研究进展

众所周知,一些乳酸菌拥有产生抗菌化合物的能力,一般采用分离单一培养物和抑制特定靶标微生物的方法筛选产生抗菌化合物的微生物,揭示诱导微生物抗菌活性产生的一个重要策略就是通过与其他微生物共培养。目前为止,已有一些研究探讨了共培养诱导细菌素产生的特性,发现产细菌素微生物和诱导细菌素微生物之间没有明显的关系。同时对于这种微生物间相互作用的分子机制研究有所突破,发现群体感应系统在细菌素产生中发挥重要作用,但还未鉴定或表征其中的诱导化合物。然而,在一些例子中,通用信使分子——自诱导物-2的存在与共培养诱导细菌素这种表型相关,并且其可在群体感应系统的调节中起作用。了解共培养的诱导机制将有助于筛选和开发共培养细菌素产生系统和新产品的策略,以及这种系统在食物和肠道中的定植能力,从而增加益生菌对宿主的益生功效。     

Distributed leaderless consensus algorithms for networked Euler–Lagrange systems

This article proposes and analyses distributed, leaderless, model-independent consensus algorithms for networked Euler–Lagrange systems. We propose a fundamental consensus algorithm, a consensus algorithm accounting for actuator saturation, and a consensus algorithm accounting for unavailability of measurements of generalised coordinate derivatives, for systems modelled by Euler–Lagrange equations. Due to the fact that the closed-loop interconnected Euler–Lagrange equations using these algorithms are non-autonomous, Matrosov's theorem is used for convergence analysis. It is shown that consensus is reached on the generalised coordinates and their derivatives of the networked Euler–Lagrange systems as long as the undirected communication topology is connected. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.