Occurrence of bacteriophages lytic for Pediococcus halophilus, a halophilic lactic-acid bacterium, in soy sauce fermentation.

Abstract

Bacteriophages specific for Pediococcus halophilus, a group of halophilic lactic cocci used as starters for soy sauce fermentation, were isolated from fermenting soy sauce moromi-mash. Typical two of these phages, q57116 and qD-86, which propagate on P. halophilus NISL 7116 and D-86 respectively, were purified and studied for their morphology and some infecting properties. Morphotype of q57116 was Ackermann's Al having an isometric head of 87-96 nmi diameter and a contractile tail of 200 nm length. q5D-86 was found to be morphotype B 1, having a 67 nm isometric head and a 300 nm noncontractile tail. Both the phages could propagate on their each host under any pH or salt conditions in which their hosts could grow. Latent periods were both 5 h and burst sizes were 27-28. Their host ranges were substantially strain-specific. They both thermally inactivated at 60°C. Stable pH ranges for X7116 and qD-86 were 5.0-8.8 and 4.4-10.7 respectively.In diluted NaCI solutions, qD-86 was fairly stable over 0.03-2.6 M but q57116 was unstable specifically between 0.04-0.1 M.In an earlier stage of the soy sauce moromi-fermentation, a group of halophilic lactic cocci, Pediococcus halophilus, propagates, usually up to 108 cfu/ml level, in moromi-mash which contains nearly 3 M (18% [w/v]) of sodium chloride (16). They make a significant contribution to the quality of soy sauce through lactic acid fermentation and other metabolic activities. There has been recently a trend to control the fermentation by inoculating moromi-mash with artificial cultures of this species.A variety of bacteriophages infecting lactic-acid bacteria have been known.

Genome sequence of the phage clP1, which infects the beer spoilage bacterium Pediococcus damnosus

“…While the overall genome organisation satisfies all requirements for the completion of a virulent life cycle, the order of the modules in the genome differs slightly to the consensus genome arrangement of the Siphoviridae family. The morphological features of phage clP1 were very similar to those observed for Pediococcus phages previously reported in the literature (Caldwell et al, 1999;Uchida and Kanabe, 1993;Yoon et al, 2007). Nucleotide sequence analysis of the genome of phage clP1 indicated that this phage was not closely related to any previously characterized phages, highlighting the large level of diversity associated with this novel phage.…”

“…In spite of this there has been very little research on phages of pediococci apart from a small number of studies. These include a phage against P. halophilus from soy-sauce fermentation (Uchida and Kanabe, 1993), three temperate phages which were induced from P. acidilactici (Caldwell et al, 1999), and two prophage gene clusters which were reported in P. pentosaceus (Makarova et al, 2006). More recently, the isolation and characterisation of a lytic Pediococcus phage from fermenting cucumber brine was reported by Yoon et al (2007).…”

Halophilic Microorganisms and their Environments

“…Phage was stable at all salinities between 1.8 and 150 However, phage was speficically unstable between 2 and 10 while being stable in both the lower(0.5to2 and the higher (10 to 150 salt range.This effect is probably due to the salting-in effect of ions which cause destruction of phage protein and DNA-protein complexes (Uchida and Kanbe, 1993).…”

Molecular analysis of the replication region of the theta-replicating plasmid pUCL287 from Tetragenococcus (Pediococcus) halophilus ATCC33315

“…Lytic bacteriophages for two T. halophilus strains have recently been described (Uchida and Kanbe 1993). Although T. halophilus plasmids are cryptic , many studies have shown that various major traits, such as ranose, melibiose and sucrose utilization (Gonzalez and Kunka 1986;Hoover et al 1988) and bacteriocin production (Klaenhammer 1993) are plasmid-linked in P. acidilactici and P. pentosaceus.…”