Abstract:

The emergence of antibiotic resistance in pathogens posed a major threat to human health because of abuses or misuse of antibiotics. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) as starter cultures or probiotics were widely used in the production of fermented food and silage processes, and have acquired “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) status. However, recently it was demenstrated that antibiotic resistance genes from foodassociated LAB strains were highly identical with that of pathogens, suggesting that LAB have the potential to serve as a host of antibiotic resistance genes with the risk of transferring the genes in commensal or pathogens in the intestinal gut. Antibiotic resistance genes were diveded into intrinsic resistance and acquired resistance based on their transferbility. Acquired resistance genes were often encoded by conjugative plasmids or conjugative transposons, which could enter into gastrointestinal tract through the consumption of fermented foods, and then transfer to the indigenous microflora and pathogens, furthermore resulted in the disease. This review will focus on the mechanism of resistance, detecyion methods of antimicrobial susceptibility and gene horizontal transfer of antibiotic resistance in foodassociated LAB.

Key words:  Lactic acid bacteria; Antibiotic resistance; Horizontal gene transfer