Abstract:To evaluate the antibiotic resistance of lactic acid bacteria in fermented foods and their transmission risk, this study was conducted to isolate and identify lactic acid bacteria from commercially available yogurt and kimchi, to identify their antibiotic resistance phenotypes by disk diffusion method, to analyze multi-antibiotic resistance, and to identify their antibiotic resistance genotypes by PCR. A total of 62 strains of lactic acid bacteria including 9 different species were isolated from 40 samples. Most of the strains were multi-antibiotic resistant from the yogurt origin. The resistance rates of yogurt-derived Lactobacillus to five antibiotics, including kanamycin, were higher than those of kimchi-derived strains, while the resistance rates of kimchi-derived Lactobacillus to gentamicin and streptomycin were above 40%. The results of antibiotic-resistant genotype identification showed the detection rate of tetM gene was the highest at 16.12%. The detection rates of fivegenes in yogurt sample isolates were higher than kimchi samples. The results of plasmid conjugation transfer showed that the tetracycline resistance gene tetM could be transferred to the recipient bacterium EC600 from two yogurt-derived strains. Overall, this study was conducted to assess the antibiotic resistance and transmission risk of lactic acid bacteria in commercially available fermented food, it can provide theoretical basis for ensuring the safety of fermented food.
