Isolation of food grade b-galactosidase overproducing mutants of Lactobacillus reuteri using chemical mutagenesis approach

AGFD 103

A. A. AbuGhazaleh, aabugha@siu.edu, Department of Animal Science Food and Nutrition, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901, Y. M. Murad, yanal.murad@duke.edu, Department of Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, A. Shahbazi, ash@ncat.edu, North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro, NC 27411, and S. A. Ibrahim, ibrah001@ncat.edu, Food Science and Nutrition, North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro, NC 27411-1064.
A classical chemical mutagenesis protocol was used to develop food grade b-galactosidase overproducing mutants of Lactobacillus reuteri. Six strains of L. reuteri ( MM 7, SD 2112, CF 2F, MM 2-3, DSM 2016 and MF 14) were tested by a single exposure to two chemical mutagens, ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) and N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG). To screen for b-galactosidase (b-gal) overproducing mutants, optimized EMS and MNNG mutant pots for each strain were plated on BHI agar containing 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-beta-D-galactopyranoside (X-gal). Colonies that exhibited a blue color were selected for quantitative b-gal activities using the o-nitrophenyl-b-galactoside (ONPG) assay. Three mutants were obtained out of more than 1 million colonies screened and showed increased b-galactosidase activities compared with the wild-type strains. EMS gave a higher frequency of b-gal overproducing mutants than MNNG for one of the three b-gal mutants. When mutants were grown in lactose broth,the highest b-gal activity was obtained(54%). This food-grade classical approach has the ability to increase b-gal concentrations in lactobacillus cultures and improve the potential application for treating the symptoms of lactose malabsorption in humans.