Some Lactobacillus genus names change, product labels must be updated

A group of global scientists led by Professor Giovanna Felis of Italy, Professor Michael Ganzle of Canada and Professor Sarah Lebeer of Belgium recently published a paper , Announced the change of the name of some bacteria previously classified as Lactobacillus, which is one of the most popular bacteria in consumer products and fermented foods for probiotics.

New scientific tools developed over the past few decades have allowed scientists to sequence the genes of bacteria, obtain the genetic information of bacteria, and change the names of bacteria to better reflect their genetic connections with each other. Many of the formerly classified as Lactobacillus The bacteria are reclassified into 25 different genera.

According to the biological naming convention, only the first bacteria named Lactobacillus can retain the genus name. Therefore, the Lactobacillus delbruecki (Lactobacillus delbruecki) used for making yogurt and its closely related bacteria retain the genus name.

The paper was published in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Biology, and the authors also created a website that can search for new and old names of bacteria.

After the bacteria name is changed, there will be many product labels that need to be updated. According to the researchers, since only the genus name of the bacteria was changed, most bacterial names can still be easily identified.