2017 Volume 33 Issue 1 Pages 31-37
We developed an online system for screening of functional lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains deposited in the NODAI Culture Collection Center (NRIC). We defined 81 characteristics as desired and useful functions of LAB and characterized 1819 strains by experiments. Characteristics include the ability to tolerate stresses, the production of functional materials, carbon assimilation, and probiotic traits. We constructed a hierarchical database of LAB strains with both qualitative and quantitative data. As it is difficult to query on quantitative data with search algorithms designed to find exact matches, the quantitative data are converted to qualitative data on the basis of data characteristics. The user can retrieve useful strains of interest by simple keyword search using only qualitative data such as“ +” and“ –” and can efficiently retrieve strains with multiple useful functions. The system is available online at http://www.ps.noda.tus.ac.jp/labdb/jsps/index.jsp. Identified functional strains can be distributed on request.
