Lactic acid bacteria: life after genomics.

摘要

As powerhouses for the food industry, lactic acid bacteria continue to be the focus of considerable interest. While traditionally applied in industrial dairy and other food fermentations, lactic acid bacteria are now used in a great variety of drinks, yoghurts or other products that are marketed with speci?c health bene?ts. This has been the largest growth segment in the functional foods market with an annual sales value of over a billion Euro. The lactic acid bacteria in these products include notably species of Lactobacillus and Bi?dobacterium that are marketed as probiotics (Saxelin et al., 2005). Hence it is no surprise that these species are actively studied and often considered together as will be detailed below. The attention for these groups of lactic acid bacteria represents a marked shift in the attention from the traditional focus on strains of notably Lactococcus and Streptococcus spp. that are used as starters in important milk fermentations, resulting in commodity products, such as cheese and yoghurt.