The superoxide dismutase (SOD) in Lactococcus lactis was measured quantitatively and qualitatively under various culture conditions. The L. lactis SOD was induced by oxidative stress. As the concentration of paraquat to produce superoxide radicals increased, the growth of L. lactis decreased with concomitant increase of SOD activity. The SOD activity was found to be growth-phase dependent: when aerobically grown cells entered to the stationary phase, the activity increased gradually until the late stationary phase. From inhibition studies, L. lactis SOD was found to be insensitive to KCN and $H_2O_2$ which are known to inhibit Cu/ZnSOD and FeSOD, respectively. Moreover, as the concentration of manganese in the medium increased, the activity of SOD also increased. These data strongly suggested that L. lactis possessed a single manganese-containing SOD (MnSOD). Finally, a putative sod gene fragment of 510 bp was identified in L. lactis using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with degenerate primers designed from the deduced DNA sequences of known SOD genes.