¹ Seoulin Bioscience Institute, Seoulin Bioscience Co. Ltd., Seoulin Bldg. 452-2, Songnae-Dong, Gangdong-Gu, Seoul 134-030, Korea

² Division of Molecular Genetics, National Institute of Agricultural Science & Technology, Suwon 441-707, Korea

Lactic acid bacteria are among the most important microorganisms in various food and nutrition. Traditionally, lactic acid bacteria have been classified on the basis of phenotypic properties, morphology, mode of glucose fermentation, growth at different temperatures, lactic acid configuration and fermentation of various carbohydrates. However, conventional phenotypic methods lead to misidentification of the several lactic acid bacteria such as Lactobacillus hilgardii and Lactobacillus brevis etc. The goal of this study was to develop a method allowing rapid identification of lactic acid bacteria by DNA genotyping with Microbial UniPrimer^TM Kit consisted of 4 primers. These primers were effective to misleaded identification of lactic acid bacteria by phenotypic properties. We are developing new markers for identification of specific lactic acid bacteria through DNA fingerprinting with Microbial UniPrimer^TM Kit. This result clearly showed that this molecular method is more fast and accurate than that of phenotypic or biochemical study for bacterial identification at the species level.