An Immunological Study of Some Lactobacilli Which Cause Beer Spoilage

Abstract

Antisera have been prepared using Lactobacillus brevis, L. casei var. alactosus and L. casei var. rhamnosus. The interaction between these and the acid-soluble antigens of a range of Lactobacillus strains, most of which were isolated from beer, has been studied using a gel diffusion precipitin test; the fluorescent anti body staining technique was used to observe the reaction between whole cells and the antisera. Gel diffusion demonstrated the presence of specific, group and non-specific antibodies. Thus, each antiserum contained (i) a specific antibody towards the organism used to produce the antiserum and towards others in the same taxonomic unit and (ii) a non-specific antibody reacting with antigens from each of the strains of Lactobacillus and also with cells of Pediococcus cerevisiae and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Additionally (iii) a serum prepared against L. casei var. rhamnosus contained a group antibody which reacted with an antigen present in Streptobacteria but not in Betabacteria, whilst an antiserum made using L. brevis contained group antibodies reacting with L. brevis and L. plantarum. Fluorescent antibody staining confirmed these distinctions and, using adsorbed sera, allowed the rapid identification of lactobacilli which cause beer spoilage.

The Use of the A.P.I. Lactobacillus System for the Characterization of Pediococci

“…Considered as a whole, these discrepancies are relatively minor and it is concluded that the use of the A.P.1 test system for the characterization of Pediococcus is an acceptable procedure which offers considerable advantages in simplicity and reproducibility. A similar conclusion has previously led us to use the system for identification of strains of Lactobacillus isolated from beer (Dolezil & Kirsop 1975).…”

Microbiological, Biochemical, and Electron Microscopic Characterization of a Pectinatus Strain

“…The existence of an antibody reacting only with antigens of VTT-E-79100 in immunodiffusion experiments suggests that this organism belongs to a different taxonomic group than the reference strains. For example, the lactobacilli commonly encountered in breweries show different antigenic structures when they belong to different species or are variants of the same species (6). Further experiments with absorbed serum and sera against reference strains, however, are needed to confirm the immunological differences between Pectinatus species.…”

New Methods for Microbiological Analysis of Food

“…By 1975, workers were evaluating commercial poly-valent fluorescent antibody preparations used on screening foodstuffs for salmonellae (53). This technique has also been used to detect bacterial contaminants which cause beer spoilage (41,42). A direct fluorescent antibody test was used to detect Clostridium co/inurn in sections of liver and intestine from chickens with ulcerative enteritis (17).…”