Meruvu, Haritha2023-11-112023-11-1120232190-68152190-6823https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-023-04895-2https://hdl.handle.net/11147/14047MERUVU, HARITHA/0000-0002-4494-5511This research pivots around screening of idoneous lactic acid bacteria (LAB) from cow milk and subjecting them to adaptive evolution experiments to aid superior growth/robustness necessary for 3-phenyllactic acid (3-PLA) production. Conventional and statistical fermentation studies were conducted at batch scale using a non-axenic coculture of three novel LAB strains: Lactiplantibacillus plantarum str. nov. plantharim, Lactobacillus delbrueckki str. nov. delharim, and Pediococcus pentasaceous str. nov. pentharim. Statistically optimized fermentation using Box Behnken technique resulted in 1225 mg/L 3-PLA production using the growth medium: cheese whey-MRS medium mixture (5:2 ratio), phenylalanine (2.69% w/v), and glucose (9.6% w/v). Statistical optimization of fermentation parameters resulted in a substantial increase (17 times higher) compared to the non-optimized fermentation conditions (72 mg/L). Monad growth kinetics of the cow milk whey (CMW) coculture were calculated and estimated as: mu max = 0.336 h-1, Ks = 11.64 mg/mL, Yx/s = 0.835 mg/g, YP/S = 1.66 mg/g, YX/P = 0.112 mg/mg. The purified 3-PLA (1.93 mg/mL) showed antimicrobial activity with pathogenic bacteria like Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, and Staphylococcus aureus, with a minimum inhibitory concentration of 12 mg/mL.eninfo:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccessCheese wheyPhenyllactic acidLactic acid bacteriaFermentationCocultureAntimicrobial activityArticle2-s2.0-8517278672710.1007/s13399-023-04895-2