Tracking of deliberately inoculated Leuconostoc mesenteroides and Lactobacillus brevis in kimchi.

The objective of this study was to track intentionally inoculated Leuconostoc mesenteroides (11251) and Lactobacillus brevis (B151) strains in kimchi using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), repetitive element palindromic PCR (rep-PCR), and comparative housekeeping gene sequences analysis. The 16S rRNA gene provided species-level information for 30 colonies randomly picked from kimchi inoculated with strains 11251 and B151. Out of 30 colonies, one colony was matched to strain 11251, and two colonies were found identical to strain B151 reference strain in inoculated kimchi. Notably, among the three tools, strain 11251 was best tracked by comparative gene sequence analysis, while strain B151 tracked by all three tools. Our results suggest that the gene sequence analysis is a more reliable tool for tracking of desired strains than RAPD and rep-PCR. Based on the findings, it is recommended that gene sequence analysis could be used to avoid misuse of industrially useful strains within the growing food industry. © The Korean Society of Food Science and Technology 2019.