Aggregation and adhesion abilities of 18 lactic acid bacteria strains isolated from traditional fermented food

*Corresponding Author E-mail: [email protected] Tel.: +86-25-84392177, Bacterial aggregation and hydrophobicity of lactic acid bacteria strains isolated from Chinese traditional fermented food were performed in order to assess a correlation with their adhesion abilities by using intestinal Caco-2 cell line in vitro model. In this study, no correlation existed between hydrophobicity/autoaggregation and adhesion of the strains belonging to different species, whereas a positive correlation (P < 0.01) existed between hydrophobicity/autoaggregation and adhesion of the strains belonging to the same species. When treated with 5 M LiCl, the autoaggregation and adhesion ability of some lactic acid bacteria strains decreased, indicating that surface-bound proteins and other macromolecules were involved in the adhesion and autoaggregation abilities. Hydrophobicity, autoaggregation, and coaggregation abilities of lactic acid bacteria strains could be used as the preliminary criteria for selecting strains with high adhesion ability.