Characterization of Lactobacillus spp. by Ribotyping

Some species of lactobacilli are known to be serious beer-spoilage bacteria. Therefore, there have been several reports about detection of beer-spoilage Lactobacillus spp. (4,9-13,15). In addition to species discrimination, strain typing has been necessary for epidemiological study. Ribotyping is one method of strain typing and is used for the characterization of the restriction fragment length polymorphism. Furthermore, this method has proved to be a useful molecular epidemiological technique (1). There have been several reports about ribotyping of a number of pathogens, such as Listeria monocytogenes (2,14), Vibrio anguillarum (7), and V. cholerae (3). Previously, we reported the application of this molecular-typing for the beer-spoilage bacteria Pectinatus spp. (6). There have also been some reports about ribotyping of Lactobacillus spp. (5,8,10,16). However, little attention has been given to whether ribotyping can be used to discriminate between species and subspecies. In this study, we attempt to establish ribotypes of beer-spoilage Lactobacillus spp., and whether ribotyping of Lactobacillus spp. can be used for species-subspecies discrimination and epidemiological study.