Several methods have been used for the identification of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) to the
species level, eg SDS-PAGE of whole-cell proteins, randomly amplified polymorphic DNA
(RAPD), amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP), rep-PCR and ribotyping. Although
useful, there are some pitfalls associated with the use of these methods concerning
portability, inter-laboratory reproducibilityand time efficacy. Informational genes such as the
16S rRNA gene are commonly considered as reliable phylogenetic markers for assigning ...