2. Materialsandmethods
2.1. Bacterialstrains —isolation, strain identification and growth conditions
All 17 EPS producing isolates were characterized biochemi-cally and genotypically using 16S rDNA sequencing. The
GenBank and EMBL accession numbers for reference16S
rRNA gene sequences are represented in Table 1. All17LAB
isolates that were preserved at 20 1C on De Man, Rogosa
and Sharpe (MRS,MERCK) broth containing 10%glycerol(v/v)
and infreeze-dried form and were propagated twice prior to
begin any experiment. The incubation temperature was
maintained at 37 1C for lactobacillus spp. and Weissella
isolates and 30 1C for Pediococcus spp. During the experiments