LANTIBIOTICS OF MILK ISOLATES: A SHORT REVIEW ON CHARACTERIZATION AND POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS

Abstract

Milk, due to its high nutritional content, is an excellent medium for supporting growth of diverse group of microorganisms, many of which produce beneficial compounds like bacteriocins. Class I bacteriocins, called lantibiotics, are ribosomally synthesized, post-translationally modified peptides containing unusual amino acids, such as dehydrated and lanthionine residues with antibacterial activities.  Bacterial strains isolated from milk and dairy products produce a range of lantibiotics which can employed for development of food preservatives, flavor enhancers and as alternate treatment strategies for multi drug resistant bacterial pathogens. The diverse category of lantibiotics from milk isolates include well characterized prototypes like nisin to newer peptides yet to be studied.  In this review, details of most prominent lantibiotics obtained from milk isolates have been presented with special focus on applications of these lantibiotics in therapeutics and food.