The food industry is at a crossroad between the production of healthy organic food which is usually prone to microorganisms that cause foodborne diseases, and the making of products with exceptional organoleptic properties and long shelf life but containing harmful chemicals such as artificial preservatives. This problem can be solved by implementing the use of bacteriocins. These compounds are small antimicrobial peptides ribosomally synthesized by lactic acid bacteria (LAB). Bacteriocins act as natural preservatives that kill bacteria closely related to their producer strain [1]. This specialty makes these peptides applicable as an alternative for antibiotics or anticancer agents as bacteriocins are target-oriented and rarely interact with the cells outside of their activity spectrum [2,3].
One of the most studied bacteriocins is pediocin. This heat-stable non-modified peptide exhibits bacteriostatic and bactericidal activity against gram-positive bacteria, especially Listeria monocytogenes [4], by forming pores in the target membrane [5]. Pediocin has been purified using different methods [6]. However, the yields acquired have been lower than expected. In addition, the continued experiments suggest that the studied pediocin produced by Pediococcus acidilactici JEM-1 has a lower molecular weight than the theoretical one. Therefore, the aim of this study is to find and perform efficient purification methods for the characterization of the pure pediocin. The previously employed single-step purification of ion-exchange chromatography is adjusted by replacing the SP-Sepharose resin with CM-Sepharose in order to avoid the interaction between the resin and colored impurities from the bacteria culture media. Moreover, the purification is supplemented with a dialysis step which is necessary to eliminate salts and the aforementioned impurities. The effectiveness of the methods is assessed by measuring antimicrobial activity. These procedures will be followed by the optimization of the purification scheme and the investigation of the final product.