Food-grade Selection Markers in Lactic Acid Bacteria -

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are generally regarded as safe (GRAS) microorganisms and widely used in industry and medicine. We are trying to add additional properties to them by gene engineering. However, the genetically modified bacteria are not acceptable to use in food and medicine due to the presence of antibiotic resistance genes in plasmids. Thus, it is necessary to develop food-grade selection markers. Food-grade markers can be divided into three classes based on their selected characteristics: dominant, complementary and sugar fermentation markers. The developments on these food-grade selection markers were reviewed in order to provide valuable references for the further study.