Abstract:Lactococcus lactis has a variety of probiotic effects and is often used as a host strain for genetic engineering. It is generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In the past two decades, L. lactis has been widely used as a carrier in presenting viruses and bacterial antigens, playing an important role in different fields. In this review, we introduced the nisin-controlled expression (NICE) system from the aspects of composition, functional characteristics, and the application in food, vaccines, animal husbandry, and veterinary medicine. We summarized the features and improvements and then predicted the development prospects of NICE system.