Strategies for the Identification and Assessment of Bacterial Strains with Specific Probiotic Traits.

Early in the 1900s, it was proposed that health could be improved and senility delayed by manipulating gut microbiota with the host-friendly bacteria found in yogurt. Later, in 1990, the medical community reconsidered this idea and today probiotics represent a developed area of research with a billion-dollar global industry. As a result, in recent decades, increased attention has been paid to the isolation and characterization of novel probiotic bacteria from fermented foods and dairy products.