title: Assessing the antimicrobial activities of Ocins.
abstract: The generation of a zone of inhibition on a solid substrate indicates the bioactivity of antimicrobial peptides such as bacteriocin and enterocin. The indicator strain plays a significant role in bacteriocin assays. Other characteristics of bacteriocins, such as their dispersal ability and the different zymogram components, also affect bacteriocin assays. However, universal well diffusion assays for antimicrobials, irrespective of their ability to diffuse (bacteriocin and enterocin), do not exist. The ability of different zymography components to generate non-specific activities have rarely been explored in the literature. The purpose of the present work was to evaluate the impact of major factors (diffusion and rate of diffusion) in a solid substrate bioassay, and to document the adverse effects of sodium dodecyl sulfate in zymograms used to estimate the approximate molecular weight of bacteriocins.
authors.affiliation: Department of Protein Chemistry and Technology, Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) Mysore, India.
authors.forename: Shilja
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Choyam
authors.affiliation: Department of Protein Chemistry and Technology, Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) Mysore, India.
authors.forename: Dhanashree
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lokesh
authors.affiliation: Department of Spice and Flavor Science, Central Food Technological Research Institute Mysore, India.
authors.forename: Bettadaiah Bheemakere
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Kempaiah
authors.affiliation: Department of Protein Chemistry and Technology, Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) Mysore, India.
authors.forename: Rajagopal
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kammara
keywords: Enterococcus; antimicrobial peptides; bacteriocins; bifidobacteria; diffusion; zone of inhibition (ZOI)