Lactobacillus (and its successor genera)

Lactobacillus is a Gram-positive, lactic-acid-producing bacterial group historically used in fermented foods and probiotics. In 2020 Zheng and colleagues used whole-genome phylogeny to split the genus into 25 genera in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, retaining Lactobacillus only for the L. delbrueckii clade and introducing names such as Lactiplantibacillus (for L. plantarum), Limosilactobacillus (for L. reuteri) and Lacticaseibacillus (for L. casei/rhamnosus). The umbrella term lactobacilli is still used informally for organisms previously in the family Lactobacillaceae. Health benefits are strain-specific: clinical evidence supports particular strains for antibiotic-associated diarrhoea, infectious gastroenteritis or vaginal flora, but not the genus as a whole.