• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.105-109
• /
• 2004

This study was conducted to investigate the potential origin of Weissella species, which were found in ingredients of kimchi, such as salted Chinese cabbage, radish, green onion, red pepper powder, pickled shrimps, garlic, and ginger. Ten strains of Weissella species (Weissella thailandensis, W. kimchii, W. koreensis, W. minor, W. halotolerans, W. hellenica, W. kandleri, W. confusa, W. viridescens, and W. paramesenteroides) and lactic acid bacteria isolated from ingredients of kimchi were analyzed by SDS-PAGE of whole-cell proteins. Several strains with patterns identical to those of Weissella kimchii were isolated from green onion. On the basis of biochemical characteristics and 16S rDNA sequence comparisons, these strains were identified as Weissella kimchii, suggesting green onion as a major origin of Weissella kimchii found in kimchi.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.16 no.4
• /
• pp.531-537
• /
• 2006

Lactic acid-producing bacteria (LABs) are known to have various beneficial properties for health. However, they are generally considered to have an adverse effect on teeth, since they produce acid. Nonetheless, milk and cheese containing specific LAB strains were recently found to have an inhibitory effect on dental caries in children, with an inhibitory activity towards the growth of Streptococcus mutans suggested as the responsible mechanism. Accordingly, the current study selected a probiotic candidate for oral health and studied its inhibitory mechanism against dental caries. Twenty-two LAB species belonging to eleven genuses were screened for promoting bone nodule formation using direct microscopic examination. Only one isolate, Weissella kimchii strain PL9001, increased the bone nodule formation significantly. The addition of W. kimchii strain PL9001 to bone cells prepared from mouse calvaria increased the bone nodule formation, calcium accumulation, and activity of alkaline phosphatase (the osteoblastic marker). Moreover, W. kimchii strain PL9001 inhibited the invasion of Streptococcus mutans into bone cells, and an organic extract of the culture supernatant of W. kimchii strain PL9001 inhibited the growth of Strep. mutans. Therefore, the results suggest that W. kimchii strain PL9001 can be used as a preventive measure against dental caries. This is the first time that a LAB has been shown to promote bone nodule formation and prevent the invasion of Strep. mutans into bone cells.

• Korean journal of food and cookery science
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.267-274
• /
• 2013

Demand for a rice cake, a popular traditional food in Korea, is rising, but its industrial-scale production is extremely difficult due to its short shelf-life caused by starch retrogradation and microbial spoilage. By means of the sourdough fermentation technique, we attempt to develop rice cakes with a longer shelf-life. Heterofermentative lactic acid bacteria (Weissella koreensis HO20, Weissella kimchii HO22) isolated from kimchi were used to ferment wet-milled rice flour for their abilities to produce exopolysaccharides and to inhibit the microbial spoilage of rice cakes. After 24 hr of fermentation at $25^{\circ}C$, viable cell counts in rice dough increased from $10^6$ CFU/g to $10^8$ CFU/g and total titratable acidity increased from 0.05% to 0.20%, whereas pH decreased from 6.5 to 5.1. Fermented rice flour showed significantly lower peak, trough, and final viscosities as well as breakdown and setback viscosities measured by rapid viscoanalyzer. Both lactic acid bacteria showed in vitro antifungal activity against Penicillium crustosum isolated from rice cakes. The antifungal activity remained constant after the treatments with heat, proteinase K and trypsin, but fell significantly by increase of pH. Rice cakes made of fermented rice flour were found to retard mycelial growth of P. crustosum. The degree of retrogradation as measured by the hardness of the rice cake was significantly reduced by the use of fermented rice flour. The results suggest that use of fermented rice flour has a beneficial role in retarding starch retrogradation and in preventing fungal growth, hence extending the shelf-life of rice cakes.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.60-66
• /
• 2005

This study was performed to know whether there is any change of physiological activity in DLMJ which is inoculated by lactic acid bacteria. Lactic acid bacteria were isolated from Dolsan leaf mustard Kimchi (DLMK) at $20^{\circ}C$. In the optimum ripening period, the population of Leuconostoc and Lactobacilli in the DLMK were found to be high. The Leuconostoc, Lactobacilli and Lactococci strains were identified as Leuconostoc mesenteroides, Leuconostoc gelidum, Weissella confusa, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus raffinolactis, Lactococcus lactis and Weissella confusa using the Biolog system. The most predominant strain which was isolated from DLMK was Weissella confusa. As the results of the phylogenetic analysis using 16s rDNA sequence, the Weissella confusa turned out to be Weissella kimchii, with 99.0% similarity. To investigated the change of physiological activity in DLMJ by lactic acid bacteria, 7 predominant strains inoculated to DLMJ (Dolsan Leaf Mustard Juice). The cytotoxicity was found to be under $19.55\%$ all cases. Also, the antioxidative activity of the DLMJ treated with lactic acid bacteria was very low, which might have been due to the reduced antioxidative phytochemicals during the preparation of the sterile sample. The ACE inhibiting activity of DLMJ by inoculation with Weissella kimchii was shown to be the highest ($94.0\%$). This could be that the degradation of sulfur containing materials in DLMJ by Weissella kimchii gave rise to ACE inhibiting activity.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.14 no.5
• /
• pp.919-923
• /
• 2004

The sk10 isolated from kimchi was identified as W. kimchii on the basis of l6s-rDNA sequencing. Studies were made to analyze the metabolic flux shift of the sk10 on glucose under aerobic growth conditions. The sk10 produced 38.2 mM acetate, 16.3 mM ethanol, and 33.2 mM lactate under aerobic conditions, but 2.4 mM acetate, 48.0 mM ethanol, and 44.1 mM lactate under anaerobic conditions. The NADH peroxidase (NADH-dependent hydrogen peroxidase) activity of sk10 grown under aerobic conditions was 11 times higher than that under anaerobic conditions. Under the low ratio of $NADH/NAD^+$, the metabolic flux toward lactate and ethanol was shifted to the flux through acetate kinase without NADH oxidation. The kinds of enzymes and metabolites of sk10 were close to those in the pathway of Leuconostoc sp., but the metabolites produced under aerobic growth conditions were different from those of Leuconostoc sp. The stoichiometric balance calculated using the concentrations of metabolites and substrate was about 97%, coincident with the theoretical values under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions. From these results, it was concluded that the metabolic flux of W. kimchii sk10 was partially shifted from lactate and ethanol to acetate under aerobic conditions only.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.80-85
• /
• 2005

Electrochemical control of the metabolic flux of W. kimchii sk10 on glucose and pyruvate was studied. The growing cell of W. kimchii sk10 produced 87.4 mM lactate, 69.3 mM ethanol, and 4.9mM lactate from 83.1mM glucose under oxidation condition of the anode compartment, but 98.9 mM lactate, 84.3mM ethanol, and 0.2 mM acetate were produced from 90.8 mM glucose under reduction condition of the cathode compartment for 24 h, respectively. The resting cell of W. kimchii sk10 produced 15.9 mM lactate and 15.2 mM acetate from 32.1 mM pyruvate under oxidation condition of the anode compartment, and 71.3 mM lactate and 3.8 mM acetate from 79.8mM pyruvate under reduction condition of the cathode compartment. The redox balance (NADH/$NAD^+$) of metabolites electrochemically produced from pyruvate was 1.05 and 18.76 under oxidation and reduction conditions, respectively. On the basis of these results, we suggest that the neutral red (NR) immobilized in bacterial membrane can function as an electron channel for the electron transfer between electrode and cytoplasm without dissipation of membrane potential, and that the bacterial fermentation of W. kimchii sk10 can be shifted to oxidized or reduced pathways by the electrochemical oxidation or reduction, respectively.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.14 no.5
• /
• pp.914-918
• /
• 2004

This study was carried out to analyze the metabolic flux of W. kimchii sk10 on pyruvate and ethanol as a carbon source. The sk10 grown on ethanol produced acetate under aerobic conditions rather than under anaerobic conditions. The lactate and acetate were produced on ethanol plus pyruvate by the sk10 grown under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, respectively. The resting cell of sk10 produced 99.1 mM acetate and 17.3 mM lactate under aerobic conditions and 51.1 mM acetate and 62.4 mM lactate under anaerobic conditions from ethanol plus pyruvate, respectively. This result is thought to be due to the difference in the $NADH/NAD^+$ ratio depending on the growth conditions. The 11-fold overproduction of NADH peroxidase results in a low $NADH/NAD^+$ratio under aerobic growth conditions. At the low $NADH/NAD^+$ ratio, the metabolic flux of pyruvate toward lactate has to be shifted to a flux toward acetate without NADH oxidation to $NAD^+$, and ethanol oxidation to acetate coupled to $NAD^+$ reduction to NADH has to be activated.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
• /
• v.12 no.4 s.31
• /
• pp.259-268
• /
• 2006

It has been recognized that high level of serum cholesterol is a risk factor associated with atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease. Ingestion of probiotic lactic acid bacteria(LAB) in Kimchi would possibly be a method to decrease serum cholesterol in humans, as it was reported. In vitro culture experiment evaluated the effects of LAB(Leu. citreum, Lac. plantarum, Leu. mesenteroides, Weissella kimchii, W. confusa) extracted from Kimchi on cholesterol reduction in the MRS broth containing soluble cholesterol. Experimental strain of Leu. citreum and Leu. mesenteroides dominated in the first phase of Kimchi fermentation reduced the level of cholesterol 55.64% and 56.37%, respectively. Also, cholesterol lowering-effect was observed in over 55% of Lac. plantarum, W. kimchii and W. confusa strains, which were dominated in the end phase of fermentation. Our results suggest that selected probiotic LAB from Kimchi have an excellent cholesterol reducing effect in in vitro culture.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.68-76
• /
• 2006

Despites many attempts to explore the microbial diversity in kimchi fermentation, the predominant flora remains controversial to date. In the present study, major lactic acid bacteria (LAB) were investigated in Chinese cabbage kimchi in the early phase of fermention. For the samples over pH 4.0, viable cell counts of Leuconostoc and Pediococcus were $10^6\;cfu/ml$ and below $10^2\;cfu/ml$, respectively, and 20 isolates out of 172 were subjected to a biochemical identification (API 50 CH kit) as well as molecular-typing methods including ITSPCR with a RsaI digestion and 16s rRNA gene sequence analysis for species confirmation. Seven isolates were nicely assigned to Lb. brevis, 6 to Leuconostoc spp. (2 mesenteroides, 2 citreum, I carnosum, I gasicomitatum), 4 to Weissella (3 kimchii/cibaria, 1 hanii) and 2 to other Lactobacillus spp. (1 farciminis, 1 plantarum). On the other hand, the biochemical identification data revealed 9 strains of Lb. brevis, 6 strains of Leuconostocs,2 strains of Lb. plantarum and 1 strain each of Lb. coprophilus and Lactococcus lactis. However, a single isolates, YSM 16, was not matched to the ITS-PCR database constructed in the present study. Two Lb. brevis strains by API 50 CH kit were reassigned to W kimchii/cibaria, Lb. coprophilus or W hanii, respectively, judging from the results by the above molecular typing approaches. As a whole, the identification data obtained by the biochemical test were different from those of ITS-PCR molecular method by about $63\%$ at genus-level and $42\%$ at species-level. The data by the ITS-PCR method conclusively suggest that predominant LAB species is probably heterolactic Lb. brevis, followed by W kimchii/cibaria, Leuc. mesenteroides, and Leuc. citreum, in contrast to the previous reports [3] that Leuc. mesenteroides is the only a predominant species in the early phase kimchi fermentation.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.36 no.4
• /
• pp.247-259
• /
• 2008

Terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis, one of rapid culture-independent microbial community analysis methods, was used to determine the lactic acid bacterial complexity and dynamics during kimchi fermentation at $15^{\circ}C$ and $4^{\circ}C$. At both temperatures, the common presence of Leuconostoc mesenteroides, Lc. inhae, Lc. kimchi, Weissella koreensis, W. cibaria, Lactobacillus sakei, Lb. curvatus, Lb. plantarum, Lb. paraplantarum, Lb. pentosus, and Lb. brevis was predicted. Lc. citreum and Enterococcus faecalis were detected at $15^{\circ}C$ and $4^{\circ}C$, respectively. W. koreensis predominated during the mid stage of kimchi fermentation whereas lactobacilli were dominants during later stage. Lb. sakei and Lb. curvatus became dominants regardless of fermentation temperature but the growth of Lb. plantarum, Lb. paraplantarum, Lb. pentosus, and Lb. brevis was restricted at psychrophilic temperature. Some species of leuconostocs were maintained until the later stage of kimchi fermentation.