Table 2.

Characteristic aspects of bacteriocins compared to conventional antibiotics (Adapted from Cleveland et al., 2001).

	Bacteriocins	Antibiotics
Application	Foods	Clinical
Bioactivity spectra	Mostly narrow	Mostly broad
Bioactivity intensity	nM – μM	μM – mM
Biosynthesis	Ribosomal	Secondary metabolite
Proteolytic degradability	High	None
Thermostability	High	Low
Activity pH range	Wide	Narrow
Target cell resistance development	Adaptation through changes in cell membrane composition	Genetically transferable determinant that inactivates the active compound
Mode of action	Generally, pore formation.	Cell membrane or intercellular targets, inhibition of cell wall biosynthesis
Toxicity in eukaryotic cells	None known	Present