Structure of plantaricin locus of Lactobacillus plantarum 8P-A3

Lactobacillus plantarum 8P-A3 is a strain which is well known on the Russian pharmaceutical market and it is included in several probiotic products. The strain has been widely used since 1973 but the mechanisms of its antibacterial activity were unknown. L. plantarum 8P-A3 expressed high antagonistic activity against the wide range of bacterial pathogens including Streptococcus agalactiae, Streptococcus pyogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae strains. DNA sequence analysis of L. plantarum 8P-A3 genome revealed the presence of a complete plantaricin locus of about 20,000 bp encoding genes of at least two bacteriocins - plantaricins EF and NC8. The plantaricin locus found in L. plantarum 8P-A3 is homologous to the plantaricin cluster in L. plantarum J51.