In the present study, lactic acid bacteria were isolated from table olive in Morocco. Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA fingerprinting with (GTG)'(5) primer revealed a remarquable variability within isolates. According to the molecular identification, Enterococcus faecium was the most dominant species isolated with 32 strains (84.21%), followed by 4 strains of Weissella paramesenteroides (10.52%), 1 strain of Leuconostoc mesenteroides (2.63%) and Lactobacillus plantarum (2.63%). All of the strains that were identified showed occurrence of more than one bacteriocin-encoding gene. Based on the results obtained, L. plantarum 11 showed a mosaic of loci coding for nine bacteriocins (pln A, pln D, pln K, pln G, pln B, pln C, pln N, pln J, ent P). A phenotypic and genotypic antibiotic resistance was also examined. L. plantarum 11, L. mesenteroides 62, W. paramesenteroides 9 and W. paramesenteroides 36 as well as all the strains of E. faecium were susceptible to ampicillin, clindamycin and teicoplanin; however, isolates showed a resistance profile against tetracycline and erythromycin. Except E. faecium 114, E. faecium 130 and L. plantarum 11, no antibiotic resistance genes were detected in all of the strains, which might be due to resistances resulting from non-transferable or non-acquired resistance determinants (intrinsic mechanism).
Keywords: Antibiotic resistance; Bacteriocin gene; Lactic acid bacteria; Table olive.