Engineering robust lactic acid bacteria

For centuries, lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have been industrially exploited as starter cultures in the fermentation of foods and feeds for their spoilage-preventing and flavor-enhancing characteristics. More recently, the health-promoting effects of LAB on the consumer have been widely acknowledged, which has led to the introduction of many products containing these probiotic strains. Within this rapidly growing market for the food industry, there is increasing interest in unraveling the molecular mechanisms involved in the stress resistance and robustness of these starter and probiotic strains. This chapter reviews the tools available in the postgenomics era to reveal these molecular mechanisms and the current strategies employed to utilize the information obtained for the rational design of more robust industrial LAB strains.