Rg. Kok et al., SPECIFIC DETECTION AND ANALYSIS OF A PROBIOTIC BIFIDOBACTERIUM STRAININ INFANT FECES, Applied and environmental microbiology, 62(10), 1996, pp. 3668-3672
For specific detection of the probiotic Bifidobacterium sp. strain LW4
20 in infant feces and for rapid quality control of this strain in cul
ture, three strain-specific 16S rRNA gene-targeted primers have been d
eveloped. These primers allow specific detection of the organism via P
CR. Specificity of the primers was determined in DNA samples isolated
from single-strain and mixed cultures of bifidobacteria and in heterog
enous fecal samples. The feasibility of this method for use in specifi
c detection of probiotic strains was investigated through addition of
Bifidobacterium sp. strain LW420 to infant instant milk formula (IMF)
and PCR analyses of bacterial DNA isolated from feces of 17 newborn IM
F-fed infants. In feces of all nine babies that had been fed with the
probiotic IMF, the strain-specific PCR signal could be detected. No si
gnal was found in feces of the eight infants that had been fed with a
nonprobiotic IMF, demonstrating the specificity of the PCR method. All
17 infants developed a major fecal Bifidobacterium population already
after 3 days, as determined through genus-specific and strain-specifi
c PCR. Phenotypical screening of Bifidobacterium sp. strain LW420 and
analysis of homology of the 16S rRNA gene sequence of this strain with
that of other bifidobacteria deposited in databases do not allow posi
tive classification of LW420 among the currently known species of Bifi
dobacterium.