title: The domestication of the probiotic bacterium Lactobacillus acidophilus.
abstract: Lactobacillus acidophilus is a Gram-positive lactic acid bacterium that has had widespread historical use in the dairy industry and more recently as a probiotic. Although L. acidophilus has been designated as safe for human consumption, increasing commercial regulation and clinical demands for probiotic validation has resulted in a need to understand its genetic diversity. By drawing on large, well-characterised collections of lactic acid bacteria, we examined L. acidophilus isolates spanning 92 years and including multiple strains in current commercial use. Analysis of the whole genome sequence data set (34 isolate genomes) demonstrated L. acidophilus was a low diversity, monophyletic species with commercial isolates essentially identical at the sequence level. Our results indicate that commercial use has domesticated L. acidophilus with genetically stable, invariant strains being consumed globally by the human population.
authors.affiliation: Organisms and Environment Division, Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Main Building, Museum Avenue, Cardiff.
authors.forename: Matthew J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Bull
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Keith A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Jolley
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: James E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Bray
authors.affiliation: Laboratorium voor Microbiologie, Universiteit Gent, K. L. Ledeganckstraat 35, B-9000 Gent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Maarten
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aerts
authors.affiliation: Laboratorium voor Microbiologie, Universiteit Gent, K. L. Ledeganckstraat 35, B-9000 Gent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vandamme
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Martin C J
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Maiden
authors.affiliation: 1] Organisms and Environment Division, Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Main Building, Museum Avenue, Cardiff [2] Centre for Digestive and Gut Health, Imperial College London, London W2 1NY.
authors.forename: Julian R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Marchesi
authors.affiliation: Organisms and Environment Division, Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Main Building, Museum Avenue, Cardiff.
authors.forename: Eshwar
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mahenthiralingam
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D002874:Chromosome Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D003611:Dairy Products / Q000382:microbiology*; D005516:Food Microbiology; D016680:Genome, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D042822:Genomic Instability / Q000235:genetics*; D007779:Lactobacillus acidophilus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D019936:Probiotics / Q000032:analysis / Q000145:classification