Organisms and Environment Division, Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
FEMS Microbiol Lett. 2013 Dec;349(2):77-87. doi: 10.1111/1574-6968.12293. Epub 2013 Oct 24.
Lactobacillus acidophilus is a commercially significant bacterial probiotic, originally isolated from the human gastrointestinal tract and designated Bacillus acidophilus in 1900. Throughout the development of methods to identify and characterise bacteria, L. acidophilus has undergone multiple taxonomic revisions and is now the type species of a phylogenetic subgroup in the highly diverse and heterogeneous Lactobacillus genus. As a result of the limitations of differentiating phenotypically similar species by morphological and biochemical means and revisionary nature of Lactobacillus taxonomy, the characterisation of L. acidophilus has struggled with misidentification and misrepresentation. In contrast, due to its global use as a probiotic supplement in functional foods, L. acidophilus sensu stricto is now one of the most well-characterised Lactobacillus species. Here, we establish the provenance of L. acidophilus strains, unpicking historical and current misidentifications of L. acidophilus, and reviewing the probiotic, genomic and physiological characteristics of this important Lactobacillus species.
嗜酸乳杆菌是一种具有商业重要性的细菌益生菌，最初从人类胃肠道中分离出来，并于 1900 年被指定为嗜酸乳杆菌。在细菌鉴定和特征描述方法的发展过程中，嗜酸乳杆菌经历了多次分类修订，现在是高度多样和异质的乳杆菌属中一个系统发育亚群的模式种。由于通过形态学和生化手段区分表型相似的物种存在局限性以及乳杆菌分类的修订性质，嗜酸乳杆菌的特征描述一直存在着错误鉴定和错误表示的问题。相比之下，由于其作为功能性食品中益生菌补充剂的全球使用，严格意义上的嗜酸乳杆菌现在是最特征明确的乳杆菌之一。在这里，我们确定了嗜酸乳杆菌菌株的来源，解开了嗜酸乳杆菌历史和当前的错误鉴定，并回顾了这种重要乳杆菌的益生菌、基因组和生理特性。
