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Adhesion to the intestinal epithelium is considered an important feature of probiotic bacteria, which may increase their persistence in the intestine, allowing them to exert their beneficial health effect or promote the colonisation process. However, this feature might be largely dependent on the host specificity or diet. In the present study, we investigated the effect of selected milks and milk protein fractions on the ability of selected lactobacilli to adhere to the cells of an intestinal model based on co-culture Caco-2/HT29-MTX cell lines. Most milk digesta did not significantly affect bacterial adhesion except for UHT-treated milk and sheep milk. The presence of UHT-treated milk digesta reduced the adhesion of Lactobacillus gasseri R by 61% but not that of Lactobacillus casei FMP. However, sheep milk significantly increased the adherence of L. casei FMP (P < 0.05) but not of L. gasseri R. Among the protein fractions, rennet casein (RCN) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) showed reproducible patterns and strain-specific effects on bacterial adherence. While RCN reduced the adherence of L. gasseri R to <50% compared to the control, it did not have a significant effect on L. casei FMP. In contrast, BSA reduced L. casei FMP adherence to a higher extent than that of L. gasseri R. Whey protein (WH) tended to increase the adherence of both strains by 130%-180%. Recently, interactions between the host diet and its microbiota have attracted considerable interest. Our results may explain one of the aspects of the role of milk in the development of microbiota or support of probiotic supplements. Based on our data, we conclude that the persistence of probiotic strains supplemented as part of dairy food or constitutional microbiota in the gut might be affected negatively or positively by the food matrix through complex strain or concentration dependent effects.

No abstract

Fresh samples of intestinal contents of three wild pigs originating from the Central Bohemia region were examined for the presence of bifidobacterial strains. During the study, we isolated many fructose-6-phosphate phosphoketolase-positive, strictly anaerobic, irregular rod-shaped bacterial isolates. Three of them were preliminarily identified as representing a novel species of the genus Bifidobacterium because their 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with the closest relatives of thermophilic bifidobacteria (Bifidobacterium boum DSM 20432T, Bifidobacterium thermophilum DSM 20210T, Bifidobacterium thermacidophilumsubsp. porcinum LMG 21689T, Bifidobacterium thermacidophilumsubsp. thermacidophilum DSM 15837T) was in the range of 97.9 - 98.4 %. All three bacterial isolates had identical 16S rRNA, dnaJ1, fusA, gyrB and rplB gene sequences. Isolate RP115T was chosen as a representative of the bacterial group and DNA G+C content (mol%) determination, biochemical tests and analyses of physiological and morphological characteristics, habitat and chemotaxonomic traits (peptidoglycan structure, cellular fatty acids and polar lipids profile) were performed. The DNA-DNA hybridization analyses of RP115T and species representing the group of thermophilic bifidobacteria revealed values in the range from 33 to 53 %. This fact, together with relatively low sequence similarities of particular phylogenetic markers among examined bacterial strains and the phenotyping and chemotaxonomy results obtained, indicated that the evaluated bacterial isolate should be classified as representing a separate taxon within the specific group of thermophilic bifidobacteria. The name Bifidobacterium apri (of boar) sp. nov. has been proposed for the representative strain RP115T (=CCM 8605T=DSM 100238T=LMG 28779T).

Geigerová M., Švejstil R., Skřivanová E., Straková E., Suchý P. (2017): Effect of dietary lupin (Lupinus albus) on the gastrointestinal microbiota composition in broiler chickens and ducks. Czech J. Anim. Sci., 62, 369-376.The purpose of the study was to evaluate the amount of raffinose-series oligosaccharides (RSO) in soybean meal (SBM), whole white lupin seed meal (WLM), sunflower meal (SFM), and rapeseed oil meal (ROM) and to determine whether partial or complete dietary WLM replacement affected the numbers of bacteria in selected groups in the microbiota of broiler chickens and ducks without inducing any weight loss. Total counts of anaerobes, lactobacilli, bifidobacteria, and Escherichia coli in caecal samples from both ducks and broiler chickens, as well as in a crop chyme, in broiler chickens, were determined. Live weights before slaughter were determined. Both broiler chickens and ducks were fed a control diet with SBM (L 0 ) or diet containing 50% or 100% WLM as a substitute for SBM (groups L 50 and L 100 , respectively). In comparison with SBM, WLM contained significantly higher amounts of RSO, and the amounts of oligosaccharides in SFM (1.73 ± 0.26 g/100 g) and ROM (1.79 ± 0.14 g/100 g) were negligible compared to those in WLM (8.26 ± 0.14 g/100 g) and SBM (6.96 ± 0.21 g/100 g). The inclusion of lupin in chicken diets did not significantly affect the monitored bacterial groups in crop chyme, but a complete replacement of SBM with WLM (L 100 group) in chicken diets significantly (P ≤ 0.05) increased the counts of lactobacilli in caecal samples. Partial (L 50 group) and complete (L 100 group) lupin supplementation in the duck diet significantly (P ≤ 0.05) increased counts of lactobacilli and bifidobacteria by at least one order of magnitude. E. coli counts in poultry were not affected by changes in diet. The results of our study indicate that partial dietary replacement of SBM with WLM did not significantly affect the live weight of broiler chickens and ducks, but that complete replacement of SBM with WLM may lead to weight loss.

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Pectinatella magnifica is a freshwater bryozoan, which has become a subject of scientific interest because of its invasive expansion worldwide. To obtain a comprehensive overview of its influence on environments, information on associated bacteria is needed. In this study, cultivable bacteria associated with P. magnifica were investigated. In total, 253 isolates were selected for preliminary identification by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry and clustered based on repetitive extragenic palindromic-PCR profiles. Among these, 169 strains were selected and identified using 16S rRNA gene comparative analyses. The sequences were grouped into 76 phylotypes and affiliated with 67 species. The majority of isolated bacteria belonged to Gammaproteobacteria, followed by Betaproteobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes and Actinobacteria. Most strains within the Betaproteobacteria were isolated exclusively from bryozoan colonies. Aeromonas was the genus predominantly isolated from both P. magnifica and the water samples. Based on 16S rDNA similarity values, 15 putative new species belonging to the genera Aeromonas, Aquitalea, Clostridium, Herbaspirillum, Chromobacterium, Chryseobacterium, Morganella, Paludibacterium, Pectobacterium, Rahnella, Rhodoferax and Serratia, and putative new genera belonging to families Clostridiaceae and Sporomusaceae were revealed. The majority of the detected bacteria were species widely distributed in the environments; nevertheless, a possible symbiotic association of two new putative species with P. magnifica cannot be excluded.

Fecal bacteria from 33 infants (aged 1 to 6 months) were tested for growth on commercial prebiotics. The children were born vaginally (20) or by caesarean section (13). Bifidobacteria, lactobacilli, gram-negative bacteria, Escherichia coli, and total anaerobes in fecal samples were enumerated by selective agars and fluorescence in situ hybridization. The total fecal bacteria were inoculated into cultivation media containing 2 % Vivinal® (galactooligosaccharides-GOS) or Raftilose® P95 (fructooligosaccharides-FOS) as a single carbon source and bacteria were enumerated again after 24 h of anaerobic cultivation. Bifidobacteria dominated, reaching counts of 9-10 log colony-forming units (CFU)/g in 17 children born vaginally and in seven children delivered by caesarean section. In these infants, lactobacilli were more frequently detected and a lower number of E. coli and gram-negative bacteria were determined compared to bifidobacteria-negative infants. Clostridia dominated in children without bifidobacteria, reaching counts from 7 to 9 log CFU/g. Both prebiotics supported all groups of bacteria tested. In children with naturally high counts of bifidobacteria, bifidobacteria dominated also after cultivation on prebiotics, reaching counts from 8.23 to 8.77 log CFU/mL. In bifidobacteria-negative samples, clostridia were supported by prebiotics, reaching counts from 7.17 to 7.69 log CFU/mL. There were no significant differences between bacterial growth on Vivinal® and Raftilose® P95 and counts determined by cultivation and FISH. Prebiotics should selectively stimulate the growth of desirable bacteria such as bifidobacteria and lactobacilli. However, our results showed that commercially available FOS and GOS may stimulate also other fecal bacteria.