Isolation and application of lactic acid bacteria and yeasts from coastal “Satoumi” environments

Abstract

The Ministry of the Environment, Government of Japan, defines a Satoumi as a coastal area where biological productivity and biodiversity has increased through human interaction. In other words, Satoumi areas are fishing villages, towns, or cities where humans coexist with nature. Moreover, traditions, social systems, and organizations have originated in these coastal areas. Now, to get the useful microorganisms, many researchers try to isolate from the traditional fermented foods not well known and extreme environments in all over the world. On the other hand, we try to isolate lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and yeasts that can be expected to be useful from the familiar coast environments and name that “Satoumi LAB and yeasts”. In this review, fermentative abilities and characteristics as functional foods of several Satoumi LAB and yeast strains isolated from traditional fermented fish products, fish intestines and beach cast algae are shown.