Screening local Lactobacilli from Iran in terms of production of lactic acid and identification of superior strains

Introduction: Lactobacilli are a group of lactic acid bacteria that their final product of fermentation is lactic acid. The objective of this research is selection of local Lactobacilli producing L (+) lactic acid. Materials and methods: In this research the local strains were screened based on the ability to produce lactic acid. The screening was performed in two stages. The first stage was the titration method and the second stage was the enzymatic method. The superior strains obtained from titration method were selected to do enzymatic test. Finally, the superior strains in the second stage (enzymatic) which had the ability to produce L(+) lactic acid were identified by biochemical tests. Then, molecular identification of strains was performed by using 16S rRNA sequencing. Results: In this study, the ability of 79 strains of local Lactobacilli in terms of production of lactic acid was studied. The highest and lowest rates of lactic acid production was 34.8 and 12.4 mg/g. Superior Lactobacilli in terms of production of lactic acid ability of producing had an optical isomer L(+), the highest levels of L(+) lactic acid were with 3.99 and the lowest amount equal to 1.03 mg/g. The biochemical and molecular identification of superior strains showed that strains are Lactobacillus paracasei. Then the sequences of 16S rRNA of superior strains were reported in NCBI with accession numbers KF735654، KF735655، KJ508201and KJ508202. Discussion and conclusion: The amounts of lactic acid production by local Lactobacilli were very different and producing some of these strains on available reports showed more products. The results of this research suggest the use of superior strains of Lactobacilli for production of pure L(+) lactic acid.