Isolation of Probiotic Microorganisms from Homemade Cheese and Study of Its Antagonistic Potential

Probiotics are live microorganisms that, when administered in sufficient quantities, enhance the health of the host. The probiotic microorganism is also frequently associated with the production of bacteriocins, siderophores, lysozymes, proteases, and hydrogen peroxides that are often responsible for limiting the growth of pathogenic microbes. The present work focusses on isolation of probiotic microbes from homemade cheese products, followed by its characterization and evaluation of its potential application towards aquaculture industry. The microorganism was isolated employing MRS medium and was found to be gram negative coccobacilli in their morphological features. The isolate was determined to be Acinetobacter indicus through 16srRNA analysis. This was also confirmed through the biochemical characterization that exhibited the features of Acinetobacter indicus. The organism was deposited in GenBank as Acinetobacter indicus strain CR1 with the accession number OQ736577.1. The organism upon evaluation for probiotic characteristics revealed an auto aggregation activity of 15.4% and cell surface hydrophobicity of 35 %. Further, it didn’t exhibit any Hemolytic and DNase activity, while displaying tolerance towards lower pH values and phenol. Also, the organism exhibited considerable antimicrobial activity towards E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumonia. The Acinetobacter indicus strain CR1 displayed substantial antibiotic resistance towards Nalidixic acid and Amphotericin, intermediate susceptibility to vancomycin and found to be sensitive to tetracycline, streptomycin, kanamycin, and ampicillin.