Adaptive Laboratory Evolution to obtain lactic acid bacteria strains of industrial interest - a review

Abstract The purpose of this review was to describe how adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) can provide improvement to lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains for their application in industrial biotechnological processes. This review was carried out according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) approach, incorporating the ScienceDirect and Scopus databases. The literature search yielded 4,167 (ScienceDirect) and 27 (Scopus) articles, which were reduced to 12 after applying the inclusion /exclusion criteria. The studies revolved around LAB of the genera Lactobacillus, Lactococcus, Leuconostoc and Enterococcus and the application of ALE experiments in batch mode, fed-batch mode, or both, and aimed to produce strains with increased lactic acid production capabilities, higher cell viability, and multiple-stress tolerance. The studies demonstrated that ALE is an efficient approach for strain modification towards desired phenotypic functions and does not require genetic engineering. Knowledge of the cellular and molecular responses of microorganisms to stress enables an understanding of the adaptation mechanisms of LAB strains for survival and increased production of metabolites throughout ALE experiments.