ABSTRACT
Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) is the term used for a large and rather diverse group of prokaryotes, which have in common the production of lactic acid as their main metabolic end product (Klaenhammer et al. 2005). Traditionally, LAB have been characterized as aerotolerant anaerobes belonging to the Grampositive bacterial phylum. In the new molecular taxonomy in which organisms are clustered according to their genetic relatedness, the LAB clade is grouped with the …rmicutes together with other low %G+C Gram-positive bacteria such as Clostridium, Bacillus, Staphylococcus, Listeria, etc. (Teuber and Geis 2006). Use of a combination of traditional and molecular techniques has divided bacteria belonging to the LAB family up into the following genera: Lactobacillus, Streptococcus, Lactococcus, Enterococcus, Melissococcus, Tetragenococcus, Vagococcus, Trichococcus, Carnobacterium, Desemzia, Leuconostoc, Weisella, and Pediococcus (Hammes and Hertel 2006).
