Background: Members of the genus Bifidobacterium are anaerobic Gram-positive Actinobacteria, which are natural inhabitants of human and animal gastrointestinal tract. Certain bifidobacteria are frequently used as food additives and probiotic pharmaceuticals, because of their various health-promoting properties. Due to the enormous demand on probiotic bacteria, manufacture of high-quality products containing living microorganisms requires rapid and accurate identification of specific bacteria. Additionally, isolation of new industrial bacteria from various environments may lead to multiple isolations of the same strain, therefore, it is important to apply rapid, low-cost and effective procedures differentiating bifidobacteria at the intra-species level. The identification of new isolates using microbiological and biochemical methods is difficult, but the accurate characterization of isolated strains may be achieved using a polyphasic approach that includes classical phenotypic methods and molecular procedures. However, some of these procedures are time-consuming and cumbersome, particularly when a large group of new isolates is typed, while some other approaches may have too low discriminatory power to distinguish closely related isolates obtained from similar sources.

The genus Lactobacillus includes, among others, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus paracasei and Lactobacillus rhamnosus, species that are collectively referred to as the Lactobacillus casei group. Many studies have shown that strains belonging to this group may decrease lactose intolerance, the effects of inflammatory bowel disease, diarrhea, constipation, food allergies and even colon cancer. Moreover, evidences exists of positive effects of these bacteria on mucosal immunity and blood cholesterol level. Because of their beneficial influence on human health, many of them are used as food additives and probiotic pharmaceuticals. It should be stressed that health-promoting properties are not attributed at the species level, but to specific strains. Therefore, procedures are necessary to allow specific identification at each phylogenetic level—genus, species and strain. In this paper we present a practical overview of molecular methods for the identification and differentiation of L. casei bacteria. The research included 30 bacterial strains belonging to three species: L.casei, L. paracasei and L. rhamnosus. Among the tested procedures were genus- and species-specific PCR, multiplex-PCR, Real-Time HRM analysis, RFLP-PCR, rep-PCR, RAPD-PCR, AFLP-PCR, and proteomic methods such as MALDI-TOF MS typing and SDS-PAGE fingerprinting. The obtained results showed that multiplex-PCR and MALDI-TOF MS turned out to be the most useful methods to identify the tested bacteria at the species level. At the strain level, the AFLP-PCR method showed the highest discriminatory power. We hope that the presented results will allow for the easy selection of an appropriate procedure, depending on the experiment conducted and the equipment capabilities of any given laboratory.

The ability of Rhizopus oryzae to produce fumaric acid in the presence of glycerol and/or various monosaccharides as carbon sources was examined for seventeen different strains of this fungi. These strains were tested in shake-flask cultures on media containing glycerol and seven different carbohydrates, including glucose, fructose, galactose, mannose, xylose, arabinose, and rhamnose. An interesting and applicationally useful phenomenon was observed. This work presents a new approach to the conventional microbiological method of producing fumaric acid. In the presence of 40 g/l glycerol as the sole carbon source, fumaric acid production reached 0.16–6.1 g/l after 192 h. When monosaccharides were used as a single carbon source, the maximum fumaric acid concentration was much higher; for example, 19.8 g/l was achieved when 40 g/l xylose was used. In the co-fermentation of xylose (40 g/l) and glycerol (20 g/l), post-culture broth contained approx. 28.0 g/l of fumaric acid with a process yield of 0.90 g/g after 168 h. The production of fumaric acid by Rhizopus oryzae was also increased in the dual presence of glycerol and monosaccharides like fructose, galactose, and mannose. However, results obtained on glucose-glycerol-based medium did not follow this trend, showing instead complete utilization of glucose with significant glycerol consumption, but unexpectedly low final amounts of fumaric acid and process yields. Understanding how Rhizopus oryzae utilize various carbon sources may provide alternative avenues of fumaric acid fermentation.

Glibowski P., Kordowska-Wiater M., Glibowska A. (2011): Effect of storage on texture and microbiological stability of o-w emulsions with inulin. Czech J. Food Sci., 29: 137-144.The aim of this study was to characterise the effect of storage at 8°C on the texture and microbiological stability of oilin-water solid emulsions containing inulin (20% w/w) and rapeseed oil (20% w/w). The samples were analysed within 24 h from the production and after 7, 14, 28, 42, and 56 days of storage. Whey protein isolate (3% w/w) or polyglycerol polyricinoleate (1% w/w) were used as emulsifiers and half of the samples were chemically preserved with potassium sorbate (0.2% w/w). Hardness, adhesiveness, and cohesiveness did not change significantly (P ≤ 0.05) during storage. Most of the samples were microbiologically stable. Only the application of the protein emulsifier had an effect on the intensive growth of microorganisms. The shelf-life of low-fat chemically preserved products based on inulin can be established to be two months. Chemical preservation of the products with non-protein emulsifiers is not necessary. Sensory evaluation of spreads containing inulin revealed a significant decrease in smoothness and meltability in the mouth and good spreadability comparable with commercial products without inulin.

BackgroundLactobacillus rhamnosus Pen is a human endogenous strain with well-documented health promoting properties that is used for production of probiotics. It has a long safety history of application, and its effectiveness in the prevention of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea has also been confirmed in clinical trials.ResultsHere we present the complete genome sequence of L. rhamnosus Pen, which consists of a circular 2,884,4966-bp chromosome with a GC content of 46.8%. Within 2907 open reading frames (ORFs), genes involved with probiotic properties were identified. A CRISPR locus, consisting of a 1092-nt region with 16 spacers, was also detected. Finally, an intact prophage of ~ 40.7 kb, 57 ORFs, GC content 44.8% was identified.ConclusionsGenomic analysis confirmed the probiotic properties of L. rhamnosus Pen and may indicate new biotechnological applications of this industrially important strain.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13099-018-0235-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

No abstract

No abstract

Celem pracy była ocena zdolności nowo wyizolowanych szczepów z rodzaju Rhizopus do produkcji kwasu mlekowego. W przypadku 20 izolatów, spośród 40 przebadanych, w filtratach pohodowlanych stwierdzono znaczące stężenia kwasu mlekowego. Były to szczepy zaliczone do gatunku Rhizopus oryzae, podczas gdy pozostałe szczepy, w tym należące do gatunku Rhizopus stolonifer, tych uzdolnień nie przejawiały. Stężenia kwasu mlekowego w filtratach były zróżnicowane w zależności od użytego szczepu grzyba oraz rodzaju źródła węgla. Najwyższe stężenie kwasu mlekowego – 74,06 g/l oznaczono w filtracie pohodowlanym szczepu Rhizopus oryzae R-42, w podłożu zawierającym 100 g/l glukozy. Największą wydajność kwasu mlekowego wynoszącą 89,4 % oraz produktywność – blisko 0,5 g/l/h uzyskano również po hodowli szczepu R. oryzae R-42 na podłożu zawierającym 50 g/l glukozy. Nieznacznie niższe wartości stwierdzono, gdy jako źródło węgla użyto mannozy lub fruktozy. Zdecydowanie niższe wartości otrzymano natomiast, gdy źródłem węgla była ksyloza lub skrobia. Spośród badanych szczepów tylko 6 było zdolnych do wzrostu i produkcji kwasu mlekowego w podłożu z sacharozą, Najlepszy szczep R. oryzae R-83 charakteryzował się dużą wydajnością produkcji kwasu mlekowego wynoszącą blisko 90 % na podłożu z dodatkiem 50 g/l sacharozy. Wszystkie badane szczepy wytwarzały kwas L(+) mlekowy.