IDENTIFICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF BI FIDOBACTERIUM INDUSTRIAL STRAINS BY METHODS OF MOLECULAR TAXONOMY

The lack of a simple and rapid identification system for species of th e Bifidobacterium genus is a difficulty in the use of these bacteria i n industrial transformation. To obtain valuable discriminating criteri a, we have identified and characterized three industrial starter strai ns by two methods of molecular taxonomy by comparing with type strains of presumed commercially used species of Bifidobacterium. By DNA-DNA hybridization we confirmed the identification of one strain to Bifidob acterium longum species and of two others, presumed to belong to B inf antis and B bifidum species, to Bifidobacterium animalis. DNA restrict ion Xbal fragment polymorphism revealed by pulsed field gel electropho resis permitted to distinguish these strains.