The Lactobacillus brevis 340G strain isolated from traditional Korean fermented food (kimchi) produced 15.50mMof γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) after 48 h of cultivation in MRS media containing 1% L-monosodium glutamate(MSG). The culture conditions of Lb. brevis 340G were optimized for GABA production. Lb. brevis 340G was cul-tivated at 30oC in optimized MRS media containing 3% sucrose and 2% yeast extract with 3% MSG, resulting inmaximum GABA production (68.77mM) after 54 h of cultivation. Skim milk fermented with Lb. brevis 340G pro-duced 4.64mM of GABA in the presence of 1% MSG. These results suggest that Lb. brevis 340G could be usedas a starter for functional fermented foods and skim milk fermented with Lb. brevis 340G could be further devel-oped to become functional dairy food fortified with GABA.

• Myung-Ji Seo(Division of Bioengineering, Incheon National University)
• Ji-Yeon Lee(Fermentation and Functionality Research Group, Korea Food Research Institute)
• Young-Do Nam(Fermentation and Functionality Research Group, Korea Food Research Institute)
• So-Young Lee(Fermentation and Functionality Research Group, Korea Food Research Institute)
• So-Lim Park(Fermentation and Functionality Research Group, Korea Food Research Institute)
• Sung-Hun Yi(Fermentation and Functionality Research Group, Korea Food Research Institute)
• Mi-Hwa Lee(Fermentation and Functionality Research Group, Korea Food Research Institute)
• Seong Woon Roh(Jeju Center and Division of Life Science, Korea Basic Science Institute)
• Hak-Jong Choi(Emerging Technology Research Group, World Institute of Kimchi)
• Seong-Il Lim(Fermentation and Functionality Research Group, Korea Food Research Institute) Corresponding author