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Since the discovery in 1899 of bifidobacteria as numerically dominant microbes in the feces of breast-fed infants, there have been numerous studies addressing their role in modulating gut microflora as well as their other potential health benefits. Because of this, they are frequently incorporated into foods as probiotic cultures. An understanding of their full interactions with intestinal microbes and the host is needed to scientifically validate any health benefits they may afford. Recently, t

Deletion of genomic regions, often facilitated by mobile elements, allows bifidobacteria to adapt to fermentation environments in a very rapid manner (2 genome deletions per 1,000 generations) and the concomitant loss of possible competitive abilities in the gut.

Bacteriophages have been suggested as natural food preservatives as well as rapid detection materials for food-borne pathogens in various foods. Since Listeria monocytogenes-targeting phage cocktail (ListShield) was approved for applications in foods, numerous phages have been screened and experimentally characterized for phage applications in foods. A single phage and phage cocktail treatments to various foods contaminated with food-borne pathogens including E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella enterica

HY01 can inhibit both E. coli O157:H7 and S. flexneri with large burst size and stability under stress conditions. The ability of HY01 to infect both E. coli O157:H7 and S. flexneri may be derived from the presence of two different host specificity-associated tail genes in the genome. Food applications revealed the specific ability of HY01 to inhibit both pathogens in food, suggesting its potential as a novel biocontrol agent or novel natural food preservative against E. coli O157:H7 and potenti

Bifidobacterium longum DJO10A is a recent human isolate with probiotic characteristics and contains two plasmids, designated pDOJH10L and pDOJH10S. The complete sequences of both these plasmids have now been determined and consist of two circular DNA molecules of 10,073 and 3,661 bp, with G+C contents of 62.2% and 66.2%, respectively. Plasmid pDOJH10L is a cointegrate plasmid consisting of DNA regions exhibiting very high sequence identity to two other B. longum plasmids, pNAC2 (98%) and pKJ50 (

A Salmonella lytic bacteriophage, SS3e, was isolated, and its genome was sequenced completely. This phage is able to lyse not only various Salmonella serovars but also Escherichia coli, Shigella sonnei, Enterobacter cloacae, and Serratia marcescens, indicating a broad host specificity. Genomic sequence analysis of SS3e revealed a linear double-stranded DNA sequence of 40,793 bp harboring 58 open reading frames, which is highly similar to Salmonella phages SETP13 and MB78.

Bifidobacterium longum DJO10A was previously demonstrated to produce a lantibiotic, but only during growth on agar media. To evaluate the feasibility of production of this lantibiotic in broth media, a transcription analysis of the lanA gene was undertaken. Comparative microarray analysis of broth and agar cultures of B. longum DJO10A revealed that the lantibiotic production, modification, transport/peptidase, and immunity genes were significantly upregulated in agar cultures, while the two-comp

Clostridium perfringens is a well-known pathogen that causes food-borne illnesses. Although bacteriophages can be effective natural food preservatives, phage endolysin and cell wall-binding domain (CBD) provide useful materials for lysis of C. perfringens and rapid detection. The genome of phage CPAS-15 consists of 51.8-kb double-stranded circular DNA with 78 open reading frames, including an endolysin gene. The apparent absence of a virulence factor or toxin gene suggests its safety in food app

Cronobacter sakazakii is an important pathogen that causes high mortality in infants. Due to its occasional antibiotic resistance, a bacteriophage approach might be an alternative effective method for the control of this pathogen. To develop a novel biocontrol agent using bacteriophages, the C. sakazakii-infecting phage CR5 was newly isolated and characterized. Interestingly, this phage exhibited efficient and relatively durable host lysis activity. In addition, a specific gene knockout study an

Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. carotovorum is a phytopathogen causing soft rot disease on diverse plant species. To control this plant pathogen, P. carotovorum subsp. carotovorum-targeting bacteriophage PP1 was isolated and its genome was completely sequenced to develop a novel biocontrol agent. Interestingly, the 44,400-bp genome sequence does not encode any gene involved in the formation of lysogen, suggesting that this phage may be very useful as a biocontrol agent because it does not make

Metagenomic analysis of the human intestinal microbiota has extended our understanding of the role of these bacteria in improving human intestinal health; however, a number of reports have shown that current total fecal DNA extraction methods and 16S rRNA universal primer sets could affect the species coverage and resolution of these analyses. Here, we improved the extraction method for total DNA from human fecal samples by optimization of the lysis buffer, boiling time (10 min), and bead-beatin

To understand the formation of initial gut microbiota, three initial fecal samples were collected from two groups of two breast milk-fed (BM1) and seven formula milk-fed (FM1) infants, and the compositional changes in gut microbiota were determined using metagenomics. Compositional change analysis during week one showed that <i>Bifidobacterium</i> increased from the first to the third fecal samples in the BM1 group (1.3% to 35.1%), while <i>Klebsiella</i> and <i>Serratia</i> were detected in the