Isolation and Identification of Lactic Acid Bacteria from Environmental Samples.

Isolation is the first and crucial step to study possible roles of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) in environment, especially in food fermentation. It is also important to use the organisms for further application. LABs are diverse bacterial group and have diverse growth characteristics. Culture condition of LAB is thus varied, and selection of a suitable culture medium is essential for the purposes. Identification is also important step, since certain desirable and undesirable characteristics are shared within species. Identification was classically carried out by phenotypic characteristics but is usually performed for DNA sequence-based approaches. 16S rRNA gene sequencing is generally used for the identification, and sequencing of housekeeping genes is used when needed. In addition, identification based on whole-genome sequence similarities was well established during the last decade. Here, we describe methods for isolation and identification of LAB briefly.