Novel biotechnological applications of bacteriocins: A review

Bacteriocins are antimicrobial peptides produced by a large number of bacteria, including lactic acid bacteria (LAB), which are normally effective against other Gram positive bacteria. Most bacteriocins exhibit activity against significant spoilage and disease-causing Gram positive pathogenic bacteria. For this reason,, and they may be applied in, for example,are used in a lot of different applications, among them biopreservation, shelf-life extension, clinical antimicrobials and control of the fermentation micro flora. The demand for these productscompounds, such as food without adding chemical preservatives and refrigerated food has brought great interest in for new technologies that enhance the microbiological safety of these food products such as foods without adding chemical preservatives and refrigerated foods. Also the dramatic rise in antibiotic-resistant pathogens has stimulated renewed efforts to identify, develop or redesign antibiotics active against these multi-resistant bacteria. In this review we focus on the recent classification of bacteriocins, their mode of action, biotechnological applications in food and pharmaceutical industryindustries, the problems such as purification techniques and biosafety, as well as and also the recent attempts to generate custom custom-designed bacteriocins using genetic engineering techniques.