Evaluation of randomly amplified polymorphic DNA-polymerase chain reaction method for the identification of eighteen lyophilized probiotics commercially available

Identification of probiotics is crucial to ensure the quality of food products manufactured at the industrial scale. Although various techniques have been introduced for bacterial identification, randomly amplified polymorphic DNA-polymerase chain reaction (RAPD-PCR) is generally accepted as a conventional method for bacterial identification. In this study, RAPD-PCR method was evaluated for the identification of eighteen commercial probiotic strains. In results, cellular and product (lyophilized) forms of each probiotic strain were successfully identified based on band intensities and size of the amplified genes. Therefore, RAPD-PCR method may be applied for the identification of lyophilized probiotics commercially available.