Lactobacillus reuteri
| Lactobacillus reuteri | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Bacteria |
| Phylum: | Firmicutes |
| Class: | Bacilli |
| Order: | Lactobacillales |
| Family: | Lactobacillaceae |
| Genus: | Lactobacillus |
| Species: | L. reuteri |
| Binomial name | |
|
Lactobacillus reuteri Kandler et al., 1982 |
|
Lactobacillus reuteri is a Gram-positive bacterium that naturally inhabits the gut of mammals and birds. First described in the early 1980s, some strains of L. reuteri are used as probiotics.
Though the species Lactobacillus reuteri has been recognized for some time, knowledge of its probiotic properties did not come until much later.
As early as the turn of the 20th century, L. reuteri was recorded in scientific classifications of lactic acid bacteria, though at this time it was mistakenly grouped as a member of Lactobacillus fermentum. In the 1960s, further work by German microbiologist Gerhard Reuter – for whom the species eventually would be named – began to distinguish L. reuteri from L. fermentum. Reuter reclassified the species as "Lactobacillus fermentum biotype II".
L. reuteri was eventually identified as a distinct species in 1980 by Kandler et al. This group found significant differences between L. reuteri and other biotypes of L. fermentum, and thus proposed it be given formal species identity. They chose the species name "reuteri", after discoverer Gerhard Reuter, and L. reuteri has since been recognized as a separate species within the Lactobacillus genus.
In the early 1980s, shortly after its recognition as a distinct species, scientists began to find L. reuteri in many natural environments; it has been isolated from many foods, especially meat and milk products.
Interest in L. reuteri began to increase as scientists began to find it colonizing the intestines of healthy animals. Gerhard Reuter first isolated L. reuteri from human fecal and intestinal samples in the 1960s, and this work was later repeated by other researchers. The same experiments – attempting to isolate L. reuteri from feces and intestine of healthy animals – were also done for nonhuman species, proving that L. reuteri seems to be present almost universally throughout the animal kingdom. For example, L. reuteri was discovered to be present naturally in the intestines of healthy sheep, chickens,pigs, and rodents.
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