Isolation and Characterization of Putrescine-producing Bacteria in Commercially Available Sauces Made from Salted and Fermented Sand Lance Ammodytes personatus

Abstract

Bacterial decarboxylation of amino acids in food leads to the production of biogenic amines, which can cause reactions in human that include headaches, nausea, palpitations, chills, and severe respiratory distress. The amine putrescine is an especially effective inhibitor of metabolizing enzymes and amplifies histamine intoxication and tyramine poisoning. Using an L-ornithine decarboxylating medium, we isolated 14 putrescine-producing bacteria from sand lance, Ammodytes personatus, sauces. The isolates were identified, using an API kit and 16S rRNA analysis, as Lysinibacillus fusiformis (1 strain), Lysinibacillus xylanilyticus (6 strains), Lysinibacillus macroides (1 strain), Lysinibacillus sphaericus (3 strains), Bacillus fusiformis (1 strain), Paenibacillus favisporus (1 strain), and Staphylococcus caprae (1 strain). These strains produced between 1.66 to 236.97 μg/mL of putrescine after 48 h incubation. Lysinibacillus spp. were the dominant putrescine-producing bacteria in sand lance sauces, which produced 236.97 μg/mL of putrescine from a culture broth containing 0.5% L-ornithine. This is the first report on the isolation and identification of putrescine-producing bacteria from sand lance sauces.