Analysis of cellular fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) for the identification of Leuconostoc strains isolated from Kimchi

Abstract

The cellular fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) analysis data obtained for clusters defined at a Euclidian distance of 17.5, in the classification of lactic acid bacteria isolated from kimchi, described by Lee et al. (4), was used for the identification of 79 Leuconostoc isolates. The test strains were isolated using a selective isolation medium specific for the genus Leuconostoc. These strains were then characterized according to their fatty acid profiles. The results show that all seventy nine test strains were identified to the known Leuconostoc clusters B, C and D. Cluster B had the highest relative amount of the saturated fatty acid 16:0. The saturated fatty acid 16:0 and summed feature 9 were found as a major components in cluster C, which had a higher level of summed feature 9 than cluster B. Cluster D is characterized by the highest relative amount of the unsaturated fatty acid 18:1 w9c. It is suggested that FAMEs analysis can be successfully applied in the identification of lactic acid bacteria isolated from kimchi.