ISOLATION AND MOLECULAR IDENTIFICATION OF WEISSELLA CIBARIA FROM CABBAGE

Abstract

Weissella is a genus of lactic acid bacteria that is gram positive, catalase negative, coccoid shaped. Weissella cibaria can be found in the initial stage of lactic acid fermentation in cabbage in the presence of salt. This study was conducted to isolate and identify Weissella cibaria to molecular level from cabbage. Freshly harvested cabbage was shredded and brined in 2.5 % salt (NaCl) for 48 h, it was inoculated aseptically into deMan, Rogosa and Sharpe agar (MRS) and incubated for three (3) days at 37 ^oC. Conventional tests carried out on isolate were grams reaction, catalase production, sugar fermentation tests using glucose, sucrose, maltose, lactose and fructose. Isolate was extracted using AccuPrep Genomic DNA Extraction kit, amplified, agarose gel electrophoresis was carried out and viewed under UV light, sequence was obtained and compared to those in the GenBank database using the BLAST program at the NCBI-GenBank database. Isolate was gram positive, cocci, catalase negative, could utilize certain sugars such as glucose, fructose, sucrose, maltose. Isolate showed bands at 789 base pair. Sequence submitted to the basic local alignment search tool (BLAST) resulted to Weissella ciberia strain PON10032 with 94 % identity, a score of 897 bits and a sequence ID of KC416978.1.