from Yasushi Kawai and Tadao Saito writing in Lactic Acid Bacteria and Bifidobacteria: Current Progress in Advanced Research:
Bacteriocins have been reported in a large number of bacteria and are used by these organisms in the struggle for survival and bacterial communication. The bacteriocins produced by lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have potential applications to prevent the growth of harmful bacteria in humans. And the bacteriocin-producing LAB strains isolated from foods and human origins are expected to be effective probiotic candidates. In this chapter, the facts, topics and problems to overcome for LAB bacteriocins and the producing strains: heterologous expression studies, nisin resistant strains and the appearance of resistant strains, applications for foods as bio-preservatives and bovine mastitis as a clinical cure, positively effects in human hosts and their microbiota, are described and discussed.
Further reading: Lactic Acid Bacteria and Bifidobacteria: Current Progress in Advanced Research