Purification and characterization of bacteriocin produced by strain of Lactobacillus brevis MTCC 7539.

Bacteriocin, an antimicrobial agent having potential for food biopreservation was purified from Lactobacillus brevis (a safe food-grade bacteria isolated from Vari Kandal, a traditional fermented food of Himachal Pradesh by adopting a novel repeated washing method. Its purity was confirmed by SDS-PAGE and Native-PAGE. The relative molecular mass of bacteriocin was 93.74 kD, while specific activity and recovery were 35.52 folds and 17.13%, respectively. It showed high thermal stability and was active over wide range of pH and exhibited sensitivity to trypsin.