Probiotic and Molecular Characterization of bacterial strains isolated from the seeds of Vigna umbellata (Rice Bean)

Abstract

The foods consumed by people across different parts of the world contain probiotics in various forms and are mostly found in diary-based products. The major limitations of using diary-based products are lactose intolerance, high cholesterol content and allergic reactions. The plant based probiotic products are on high demand which include fruits and legume-based products. There are reports on the presence of diverse beneficial microorganisms in the seeds of Vigna umbellata that improve the overall health of the plants and improve nutritional values. In this study, isolates were tested for probiotic and technological properties. Non-pathogenicity tests were also performed to ensure safe probiotic formulation for animals. The isolates showing statistically comparable properties with a commercial probiotic Lactobacillus plantarum MTCC 1407 were selected and identified using 16s rRNA gene sequencing. The identity of the potential probiotic candidate MCH P was established by16S rRNA gene sequence and results showed that the isolate had 92% homology with the Bacillus genus and it was phylogenetically closest to the bacterium Bacillus velezensis with NCBI GenBank accession number PZ306456. Overall, this study has shown that MCHP is a promising probiotic bacterium for further work to test in pre-clinical studies and to develop probiotic formulation for application to improve health of animals.