Scientists’ Assessments of Research on Lactic Acid Bacterial Bacteriocins 1990–2010

Abstract

The antimicrobial activity of bacteriocins from lactic acid bacteria has constituted a very active research field within the last 35 years. Here, we report the results of a questionnaire survey with assessments of progress within this field during the two decades of the 1990s and the 2000s by 48 scientists active at that time. The scientists had research positions at the time ranging from the levels of Master’s and Ph.D. students to principal investigators in 19 Asian, European, Oceanian and North American countries. This time period was evaluated by the respondents to have resulted in valuable progress regarding the basic science of bacteriocins, whereas this was not achieved to the same degree with regard to their applications. For the most important area of application, food biopreservation, there were some success stories, but overall the objectives had not been entirely met due to a number of issues, such as limited target spectrum, target resistance, poor yield as well as economic and regulatory challenges. Other applications of bacteriocins such as enhancers of the effects of probiotics or serving as antimicrobials in human clinical or veterinary microbiology, were not evaluated as having been implemented successfully to any large extent at the time. However, developments in genomic and chemical methodologies illustrate, together with an interest in combining bacteriocins with other antimicrobials, the current progress of the field regarding potential applications in human clinical microbiology and food biopreservation. In conclusion, this study illuminates parameters of importance not only for R&D of bacteriocins, but also for the broader field of antimicrobial research.

Plectasin’s Odyssey

“…Jørgen Leisner: If you look at bacteriocins 92 as antimicrobial peptides (21,22), at that time when you were discovering Plectasin, I think it was still an interest in using them for bio-preservation of food. Now, it appears that there was an interest in using them, maybe as a cell-killing agent.…”

“…And if they 92 Bacteriocins are bacterially produced proteinaceous or peptidic toxins normally targeting related species or genera. Some of them, however, have a wider antibacterial spectrum (22,34). 93 Cationic amphiphiles are molecules that have a unique structure comprising of two distinct parts: a hydrophilic (water-attracting) head that is positively charged (cationic), and a hydrophobic (waterrepelling) tail (35).…”

Distribution and ecology of the generalist lactic acid bacterium Carnobacterium maltaromaticum in different freshwater habitats: Metabolic and antagonistic abilities

“…The latter situation is relevant in, for example, fermented foods but is less likely to play a role in freshwater environments, especially as LAB are generally only present in low numbers compared to other heterotrophic bacteria (Leisner et al, 2008; Yanagida et al, 2007, this study; Figure 2A). LAB antagonistic activities due to bacteriocins have been well studied in food systems (Leisner & Haaber, 2012; Martinenghi & Leisner, 2022), whereas this is not so for the freshwater environment, although a recent study demonstrated a divergicin‐encoding gene, associated with C. divergens , among other bacteriocin‐encoding genes present in hydroelectric power plant water (Costa et al, 2022). For this reason, we examined the intra‐specific and interspecific antagonistic activities of freshwater isolates of C. maltaromaticum and explored to which degree these activities were due to bacteriocins.…”