Lactic Acid Bacteria – serie

Beginning with an introduction to relevant genetic techniques, chapters cover all major groups of LAB, including the Bifidobacteria; plasmid biology, gene transfer, phage, and sugar metabolism; gene expression of various LAB; applications for genetically engineered LAB, including the emerging field of medical applications; and the legal and consumer issues that arise from such applications. This resource will set the benchmark for the state of knowledge of LAB genetics and should be of value to food scientists and other researchers working with LAB in its present and future capacities. Professionals using lactic acid bacteria (LAB) for research and/or as working organisms, whether in food and dairy fermentations or in the exciting new field of clinical delivery agents, will find this book invaluable. In addition, professors teaching under- and post-graduates in microbiology, and postgraduate research students will also find this an essential reference work.

The Lactic Acid Bacteria is planned as a series in a number of volumes, and the interest shown in it appears to justify a cautious optimism that a series comprising at least five volumes will appear in the fullness of time. This being so, I feel that it is desirable to introduce the series by providing a little of the history of the events which culminated in the decision to produce such a series. I also wish to indicate the boundaries of the group 'The Lactic Acid Bacteria' as I have defined them for the present purposes, and to outline my hopes for future topics in the series. Historical background lowe my interest in the lactic acid bacteria (LAB) to the late Dr Cyril Rainbow, who introduced me to their fascinating world when he offered me a place with him to work for a PhD on the carbohydrate metabolism of some lactic rods isolated from English beer breweries by himself and others, notably Dr Dora Kulka. He was particularly interested in their preference for maltose over glucose as a source of carbohydrate for growth, expressed in most cases as a more rapid growth on the disaccharide; but one isolate would grow only on maltose. Eventually we showed that maltose was being utilised by 'direct fermentation' as the older texts called it, specifically by the phosphorolysis which had first been demonstrated for maltose by Doudoroff and his associates in their work on maltose metabolism by a strain of Neisseria meningitidis.

This volume, the first in a series on the lactic acid bacteria, offers a series of reviews by carefully selected experts drawn from several countries. Although there have been a number of excellent conferences on the lactic acid bacteria in recent years there is no publication which brings together the topics explored so thoroughly in the present text. Several topics will have particular interest to the agriculture industry, including spoilage in sugar productions, lactic acid bacteria in plant silage and conversation/upgrading of other materials for use in animal feeding, coffee, and cocoa fermentations and the role of sporolactobacilli. A review of factors governing the competitive behavior of lactic acid bacteria in mixed cultures ties together a number of the themes developed in other chapters.

Beginning with an introduction to relevant genetic techniques, chapters cover all major groups of LAB, including the Bifidobacteria; plasmid biology, gene transfer, phage, and sugar metabolism; gene expression of various LAB; applications for genetically engineered LAB, including the emerging field of medical applications; and the legal and consumer issues that arise from such applications. This resource will set the benchmark for the state of knowledge of LAB genetics and should be of value to food scientists and other researchers working with LAB in its present and future capacities. Professionals using lactic acid bacteria (LAB) for research and/or as working organisms, whether in food and dairy fermentations or in the exciting new field of clinical delivery agents, will find this book invaluable. In addition, professors teaching under- and post-graduates in microbiology, and postgraduate research students will also find this an essential reference work.