scholarly journals Sources, isolation, characterisation and evaluation of probiotics

2013 ◽  
Vol 109 (S2) ◽  
pp. S35-S50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis Fontana ◽  
Miriam Bermudez-Brito ◽  
Julio Plaza-Diaz ◽  
Sergio Muñoz-Quezada ◽  
Angel Gil

Probiotics are live microorganisms that, when ingested in adequate amounts, provide health benefits to the host. The strains most frequently used as probiotics include lactic acid bacteria and bifidobacteria, which are isolated from traditional fermented products and the gut, faeces and breast milk of human subjects. The identification of microorganisms is the first step in the selection of potential probiotics. The present techniques, including genetic fingerprinting, gene sequencing, oligonucleotide probes and specific primer selection, discriminate closely related bacteria with varying degrees of success. Additional molecular methods, such as denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis/temperature gradient gel electrophoresis and fluorescencein situhybridisation, are employed to identify and characterise probiotics. The ability to examine fully sequenced genomes has accelerated the application of genetic approaches to elucidate the functional roles of probiotics. One of the best-demonstrated clinical benefits of probiotics is the prevention and treatment of acute and antibiotic-associated diarrhoea; however, there is mounting evidence for a potential role for probiotics in the treatment of allergies and intestinal, liver and metabolic diseases. These positive effects are generally attributed to the ability of probiotics to regulate intestinal permeability, normalise host intestinal microbiota, improve gut immune barrier function and equilibrate the balance between pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines. However, the positive effects of probiotics are not always substantiated by findings from properly conducted clinical trials. Notably, even when the results from randomised, placebo-controlled trials support the beneficial effects of a particular probiotic for a specific indication, the benefits are generally not translatable to other probiotic formulations.

2001 ◽  
Vol 47 (9) ◽  
pp. 829-841 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa A May ◽  
Brenda Smiley ◽  
Michael G Schmidt

Significant portions of grain produced for livestock consumption are converted into ensiled forage. Silage producers have long recognized the positive effects of using an inoculant to insure the proper transformation of forage into a palatable and digestible feedstuff. When silage is fed from a storage structure, exposure to air stimulates the growth of epiphytic aerobes that may result in the loss of up to 50% of the dry matter. Moreover, fungi have been found to be associated with ensiled forage, but their growth is normally suppressed by the anaerobic conditions. However, the introduction of oxygen results in a fungal bloom, and the fungi and the associated metabolites may result in lost productivity in the livestock consuming the contaminated forage. In this study, we report on the diversity of the fungal community associated with whole plant corn silage during the ensiling process, and the effect of two different bacterial inoculants as compared with the uninoculated natural epiphytic fermentation on the distribution of the fungi associated with the silage. The fungal community from duplicate mini-silo packages of the same treatment was analyzed by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and direct sequencing of the resulting operational taxonomic units. This method proved useful in analyzing the complex microbial communities associated with the forage in that it was possible to determine that one inoculant dramatically influenced the fungal community associated with whole plant corn silage.Key words: fungi, silage, DGGE, OTU.


2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-146
Author(s):  
Nasiruddin Nasiruddin ◽  
Yu Zhangxin ◽  
Ting Zhao Chen Guangying ◽  
Minghui Ji

We grew cucumber in pots in greenhouse for 9-successive cropping cycles and analyzed the rhizosphere Pseudomonas spp. community structure and abundance by PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and quantitative PCR. Results showed that continuous monocropping changed the cucumber rhizosphere Pseudomonas spp. community. The number of DGGE bands, Shannon-Wiener index and Evenness index decreased during the 3rd cropping and thereafter, increased up to the 7th cropping, however, however, afterwards they decreased again. The abundance of Pseudomonas spp. increased up to the 5th successive cropping and then decreased gradually. These findings indicated that the structure and abundance of Pseudomonas spp. community changed with long-term cucumber monocropping, which might be linked to soil sickness caused by its continuous monocropping.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiufen Li ◽  
Yan Zhang ◽  
David Juck ◽  
Nathalie Fortin ◽  
Charles W. Greer

The impact of intensive land-based fish culture in Qingdao, China, on the bacterial communities in surrounding marine environment was analyzed. Culture-based studies showed that the highest counts of heterotrophic, ammonium-oxidizing, nitrifying, and nitrate-reducing bacteria were found in fish ponds and the effluent channel, with lower counts in the adjacent marine area and the lowest counts in the samples taken from 500 m off the effluent channel. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis was used to assess total bacterial diversity. Fewer bands were observed from the samples taken from near the effluent channel compared with more distant sediment samples, suggesting that excess nutrients from the aquaculture facility may be reducing the diversity of bacterial communities in nearby sediments. Phylogenetic analysis of the sequenced DGGE bands indicated that the bacteria community of fish-culture-associated environments was mainly composed of Flavobacteriaceae, gamma- and deltaproteobacteria, including generaGelidibacter, Psychroserpen, Lacinutrix,andCroceimarina.


2003 ◽  
Vol 69 (11) ◽  
pp. 6380-6385 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Temmerman ◽  
L. Masco ◽  
T. Vanhoutte ◽  
G. Huys ◽  
J. Swings

ABSTRACT The taxonomic characterization of a bacterial community is difficult to combine with the monitoring of its temporal changes. None of the currently available identification techniques are able to visualize a “complete” community, whereas techniques designed for analyzing bacterial ecosystems generally display limited or labor-intensive identification potential. This paper describes the optimization and validation of a nested-PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) approach for the species-specific analysis of bifidobacterial communities from any ecosystem. The method comprises a Bifidobacterium-specific PCR step, followed by purification of the amplicons that serve as template DNA in a second PCR step that amplifies the V3 and V6-V8 regions of the 16S rRNA gene. A mix of both amplicons is analyzed on a DGGE gel, after which the band positions are compared with a previously constructed database of reference strains. The method was validated through the analysis of four artificial mixtures, mimicking the possible bifidobacterial microbiota of the human and chicken intestine, a rumen, and the environment, and of two fecal samples. Except for the species Bifidobacterium coryneforme and B. indicum, all currently known bifidobacteria originating from various ecosystems can be identified in a highly reproducible manner. Because no further cloning and sequencing of the DGGE bands is necessary, this nested-PCR-DGGE technique can be completed within a 24-h span, allowing the species-specific monitoring of temporal changes in the bifidobacterial community.


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