Lao scientists had been participated in two reseaxch projects of ACP on 66Capacity Buiding and Development of Microbial Potential and Fermentation Technology Towards New Era" which are Explorational Research of Useful Microorganisms and Fundamental Research on Thermotolerant Microorganisms.

A total of 29 samples from different locations in Laos were collected for screening thermotolerant lactic acid bacteria (TLAB) to use for identif,iing into their genus and species, then testing probiotic activities against selected pathogenic sftains. The total lactic acid bacteria of 411 isolates were screened and primarily confirmed to be lactic acid bacteria by morphological and biochemical test. The results showed that about 90Yo of the LAB strains used, enable to inhibit the growth of E. coli with the ratio bigger than2 up to 6.2, 100% - against Salmonella thyphimurium ATCC 14028-KKU, with the ratio up to 9.4. while 80% - against Staphylococcus aureus with the ratio of clear zone was up to 4.

There were 113 isolates of thermotolerant Acetic Acid Bacteria isolated from 5 sampling sites in Xiengkhuang, Luanglrrabang, Vientiane, Bolikhalnxay Provinces and Vientiane Capital Lao PDR. The 59 isolates were classified into Acetobacter sp. and the other 54 isolates were Gluconobacter sp.

Organic-solvent tolerant bacteria were screened from different sources such as sledge, waste of starch fermented and soil contaminated with gasoline. The identification of the isolate by 16s rRNA sequence analysis revealed that they are Bacillus altitudinis, Staphylococcus sp. and Staphylococcus saproplryticus, respectively.

A total of 43 yeast strains jhat were isolated from Laos and were also identified to be Thermotolerant of ethanol-fermenting yeasts, in which the strain BUNL-l7 produced ethanol from glucose, sucrose and sugarcane higher than the other strains after 24 h with 8.22%, 7.45%, 8.31% w/v, respectively.