Towards high-throughput genome engineering in lactic acid bacteria

Lactic acid bacteria play a vital role as starter cultures in the fermentation of a variety of foods, often altering the flavor and texture in addition to aiding in preservation. Their importance to the industry has made them targets for metabolic engineering to improve relevant phenotypes and several methods of genome engineering in these organisms have been established. While the efficiency of these techniques is variable, in recent years the ability to select for successful recombinants has markedly increased the throughput of genome engineering. This review summarizes recent advances in genome engineering in lactic acid bacteria and applications that will be enabled by high-throughput techniques.