Description of two Enterococcus strains isolated from traditional Peruvian artisanal-produced cheeses with a bacteriocin-like inhibitory activity

The aim of this work was to isolate and to characterize strains of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) with bacteriocin-like inhibitory activity from 27 traditional cheeses artisanal-produced obtained from different Peruvian regions. Twenty Gram+ and catalasenegative strains among 2,277 isolates exhibited bacteriocin-like inhibitory activity against Listeria monocytogenes CWBIB2232 as target strain. No change in inhibitory activity was observed after organic acid neutralization and treatment with catalase of the cell-free supernatant (CFS). The proteinic nature of the antimicrobial activity was confirmed for the twenty LAB strains by proteolytic digestion of the CFS. Two strains, CWBI-B1431 and CWBI-B1430, with the best antimicrobial activity were selected for further researches. These strains were taxonomically identified by phenotypic and genotypic analyses as Enterococcus mundtii (CWBI-B1431) and Enterococcus faecium (CWBI-B1430). The two strains were sensitive to vancomycin (MIC 2 μg.ml-1) and showed absence of haemolysis