Abstract
Thuricin 4AJ1, produced by Bacillus thuringiensis strain 4AJ1, showed inhibition activity against Bacillus cereus 0938 and ATCC 10987. It began to appear in the stationary phase and reached its maximum activity level of 209.958 U at 18 h against B. cereus 0938 and 285.689 U at 24 h against B. cereus ATCC 10987. Tricine–SDS-PAGE results showed that the partly purified thuricin 4AJ1 was about 6.5 kDa. The molecular weights of the known B. thuringiensis bacteriocins and the ones obtained by the two mainstream websites for predicting bacteriocins were inconsistent with the size of the thuricin 4AJ1, indicating that the bacteriocin obtained in this study may have a novel structure. Based on the biochemical properties, the thuricin 4AJ1 activities increased after treatment with proteinase K and lipase II, and were not affected by a-amylase, catalase, α-chymotrypsin VII and α-chymotrypsin II. It was heat tolerant, being active up to 90º C. In the pH 3–10 range, it maintained most of its activity. Finally, the sensitivity of the strain 4AJ1 to commonly used antibiotics was tested. In view of its stability and antibacterial activity, thuricin 4AJ1 may be applied as a food biopreservative.
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Acknowledgements
This project was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2017YFD0200400, No. 2017YFE0121700 and No. 2017YFE0122000), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31672084), Fuzhou Health and Family Planning Science and Technology Project (No. 2018-S-wt7), and by institutional support RVO: 60077344 of the Biology Centre CAS, Institute of Entomology, Czech Republic. The authors thank the teachers and the students of the Biopesticide Research Center for their help, with special thanks to Ying Xiao, Baoyu Wang, Xiaofeng Wu, Jun Zhang, Ruiqing Dai, Jie Jiang, Qiaoling Zhang, Yi Zhang and Yanzhen Lin. Thanks are also extended to the referees for their conductive comments.
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XS, LL, JP, XF, SM, YG, IAL, LZ, XP, IG, TH and XG contributed equally to the study design, collection of data, development of the sampling, analyses, interpretation of results, and preparation of the paper. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Su, X., Li, L., Pan, J. et al. Identification and partial purification of thuricin 4AJ1 produced by Bacillus thuringiensis. Arch Microbiol 202, 755–763 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-019-01782-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-019-01782-1