Chapter 6 - Genetic Modification and Sequence Analysis of Probiotic Microorganisms

Abstract

Recent advances in whole-genome sequencing techniques have given impetus to research in the fields of genetics, biochemistry, and molecular biology. The genome content of an organism reflects the organism’s specific metabolism, physiology, biosynthetic properties, and ability to adapt in changing conditions and environments. Also, the analysis of probiotic genomes provides valuable data in identifying host/microorganism relationships that are vital for probiotic studies. Developments that will lead to the definition of systems, especially through the integration of genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic data, have improved our knowledge based on gene regulation and made it possible to make correct metabolic models. Nowadays, genetic engineering techniques are successfully used in many areas of life sciences, such as agriculture, medicine, and basic research, and many organisms. The DNA of probiotic bacteria can be modified using its DNA or using DNA from other GRAS (generally recognized as safe) microorganisms. The process can be achieved by the integration of target genes into the probiotic strain or deletion of some genes by site-specific recombination using the attP/integrase system or by homologous recombination using suicide vectors, by the use of food-grade vectors derived from cryptic plasmids of lactic acid bacteria, and/or bifidobacteria using the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and the CRISPR-associated (cas) release.