CHARACTERIZATION OF LACTOBACILLUS-SAKE STRAINS ASSOCIATING WITH PRODUCTION OF ROPY SLIME BY RANDOMLY AMPLIFIED POLYMORPHIC DNA (RAPD) AND PULSED-FIELD GEL-ELECTROPHORESIS (PFGE) PATTERNS

Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) patterns and pulsed-field ge l electrophoresis (PFGE) patterns were used for the characterization o f ropy slime-producing Lactobacillus sake strains. The two most reveal ing commercially available primers (OPJ 12 and OPJ 16, Operon Inc. Ala meda, USA) and two rare-cutting enzymes (AvrII and SmaI) were chosen f rom a pretested lot for the typing of 69 ropy slime-producing strains, 7 non-ropy isolates and 4 non-ropy reference strains. Both RAPD and P FGE patterns confirmed the group division established in previous stud ies and provided new information concerning ropy slime-producing strai ns. PFGE patterns were found to have the greatest discriminatory power , revealing the genetic variation of the main group of ropy slime-prod ucing L. sake strains and distinguishing all non-ropy strains from sli me-producers.