This review focuses on the potential utilization of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to deepen our understanding of probiotics, their mode of action, and technological characteristics such as survival. To that end, this review provides an overview of the current knowledge on probiotics as well as next-generation probiotics. AI-aided omics technologies, including genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics, offer new insights into the genetic and functional properties of probiotics. Furthermore, AI can be used to elucidate key probiotic activities such as microbiota modulation, metabolite production, and immune system interactions to enable an improved understanding of their health impacts. Additionally, AI technologies facilitate precision in identifying probiotic health impacts, including their role in gut health, anticancer activity, and antiaging effects. Beyond health applications, AI can expand the technological use of probiotics, optimizing storage survival and broadening biotechnological approaches. In this context, this review addresses how AI-driven approaches can be facilitated by strengthening the evaluation of probiotic characteristics, explaining their mechanisms of action, and enhancing their technological applications. Moreover, the potential of AI to enhance the precision of probiotic health impact assessments and optimize industrial applications is highlighted, concluding with future perspectives on the transformative role of AI in probiotic research.

Bee bread is a product with unique properties for humans and bees that is produced through the fermentation of pollen in the honeycomb, mainly caused by lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and yeast strains present in the environment. It is a rich source of nutrients such as proteins, polyphenols and vitamins. Despite the potential nutritional value of bee bread, it is consumed at low levels, as harvesting bee bread from the hives is costly and difficult. This study aimed to produce a standard bee bread by using different strains of the fructophilic lactic acid bacteria (FLAB) Lactobacillus kunkeei and the yeasts Starmeralla magnolia MP-2 and Zygosaccharomyces siamensis MP-14, previously isolated from bee products. In this context, bee bread was produced from pollen by solid-state fermentation using selected FLAB and yeast species, which were then compared with spontaneously developed and commercially available bee bread in terms of microbial stability, physicochemical properties, total phenolic component amounts, in vitro digestibility and amino acid profiles. As a result, it was determined that bee bread made from bee pollen fermented with starter cultures showed improved characteristics than commercial bee bread and was more advantageous in terms of absorption as well as production processes.

In this study, lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains were isolated from traditional fermented pickles, and among the identified strains, Leuconostoc citreum HE29 with a strong slimy colony profile was further selected to determine the physicochemical and techno-functional properties of its exopolysaccharide (EPS). Glucose was the only sugar monomer in the core unit of EPS HE29 detected by HPLC analysis, and glucan HE29 revealed 7.3 kDa of molecular weight. Structural characterization of glucan HE29 by ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectroscopy analysis demonstrated that EPS HE29 was a dextran-type EPS containing 5.3% levels of (1 → 3)-linked α-D-glucose units. This structural configuration was also supported by FT-IR analysis, which also demonstrated the functional groups within the dextran HE29 structure. In terms of thermal properties detected by TGA and DSC analysis, dextran HE29 demonstrated a degradation temperature of around 280 °C, showing its strong thermal features. A semi-crystalline nature was observed for dextran HE29 detected by XRD analysis. Finally, AFM and SEM analysis revealed tangled network-like properties and web-like branched structures for dextran HE29, respectively. These findings suggest the importance of plant-based fermented products as LAB sources in obtaining novel EPS structures with potential techno-functional roles.