About This Project

Removal of mold, such as Penicillium commune, from cheese is a very laborious and expensive process. Our goal is to engineer L. lactis, a commonly used bacteria in cheese making, to express antifungal agents that inhibit mold growth. We aim to develop a low cost solution that reduces food waste and allows for a safer and easier production of soft cheeses.

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What is the context of this research?

L. lactis is a common bacteria found in cheese production as it rapidly produces lactic acid, necessary to form curds. Meanwhile, Penicillium commune is a mycotoxin producing fungi that is considered a contaminant and causes discoloration and flavor defects in the cheese. Thus, it is of interest to find alternative ways to remove this mold or prevent its growth beyond traditional methods. Currently, we are developing our own plasmid in L. lactis to produce antifungals capable of inhibiting and potentially killing Penicillium commune. Our hope is to design L. lactis in such a way that it can easily be grown under cheese making conditions, while producing antifungal agents to prevent mold growth as well as saving the time and money of the cheese producer.

What is the significance of this project?

When making cheese, mold must be moved daily which is both laborious and expensive. Mold growth also generates quite a bit of food waste as up to 1 inch of cheese must be cut off around the spore to confirm safety. Thus, our design would potentially limit these losses, and by showing that we can produce antifungals in L. lactis, this design can be used in other food industries or to inhibit other mold species.

What are the goals of the project?

Our overarching goal is to express antifungals inside L. lactis at concentrations high enough to inhibit mold growth. By the end of the current semester our goal is to finish designing the plasmids that contain our selected antifungals, as well as characterize growth and the induction through the production of GFP. We also aim to start designing protocols for assays this semester so that next semester we can start testing the efficacy of our design and see how we can improve the strain if we cannot efficiently inhibit growth. The hope is that over the next few semesters we can finalize these designs, and then start running the system in cheese making conditions to confirm that our L. lactis can kill mold and reduce food waste.