Establishment of porcine fecal-derived microbial communities to evaluate the impact of livestock feed on gut microbiome.

Sustainable livestock production requires reducing competition for food and feed resources and increasing the utilization of food by-products in livestock feed. This study describes the establishment of an anaerobic batch culture model to simulate pig microbiota and evaluate the effects of a food by-product, wakame seaweed stalks, on microbial communities. We selected one of the nine media to support the growth of a bacterial community most similar in composition and diversity to that observed in pig donor feces.

Genome sequence of AH4, a milk oligosaccharide-degrading strain isolated from suckling rats.

We had previously isolated AH4, a strain capable of degrading rat milk oligosaccharides. In this study, we determined the whole-genome sequence of AH4. This whole-genome information will expand our understanding of milk oligosaccharide-mediated symbioses between bacteria and host mammals.

LOC1 Isolated from Fresh Tea Leaves Modulates Macrophage Response to TLR4 Activation.

Previously, we demonstrated that LOC1, originally isolated from fresh tea leaves, was able to improve epithelial barrier integrity in in vitro models, suggesting that this strain is an interesting probiotic candidate. In this work, we aimed to continue characterizing the potential probiotic properties of the LOC1 strain, focusing on its immunomodulatory properties in the context of innate immunity triggered by Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) activation. These studies were complemented by comparative and functional genomics analysis to characterize the bacterial genes involved in the immunomodulatory capacity.

Milk oligosaccharide-mediated cross-feeding between and lactobacilli in the gut microbiota of infant rats.

We investigated bacteria that have a nutritional symbiotic relationship with respect to milk oligosaccharides in gut microbiota of suckling rats, with specific reference to sialyllactose (SL) degrading . Our next generation sequencing analysis of the colonic contents of 12-day-old suckling rats revealed that almost half of the bacteria in the microbiota belonged to the Lactobacillaceae family. Major species in the contents were identified as , , and .

Isolation, identification, and impact on intestinal barrier integrity of from fresh tea leaves .

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are safe microorganisms that have been used in the processing of fermented food for centuries. The aim of this study was to isolate from fresh tea leaves and examine the impact of an isolated strain on intestinal barrier integrity. First, the presence of strains was investigated in fresh tea leaves from Kagoshima, Japan.

Identification of genes encoding a novel ABC transporter in Lactobacillus delbrueckii for inulin polymers uptake.

Lactobacillus delbrueckii JCM 1002 grows on highly polymerized inulin-type fructans as its sole carbon source. When it was grown on inulin, a > 10 kb long gene cluster inuABCDEF (Ldb1381-1386) encoding a plausible ABC transporter was suggested to be induced, since a transcriptome analysis revealed that the fourth gene inuD (Ldb1384) was up-regulated most prominently. Although Bacillus subtilis 168 is originally unable to utilize inulin, it became to grow on inulin upon heterologous expression of inuABCDEF.

Isolation and identification of milk oligosaccharide-degrading bacteria from the intestinal contents of suckling rats.

We report the isolation of bacteria capable of degrading milk oligosaccharides from suckling infant rats. The bacteria were successfully isolated via a selective enrichment method, in which the serially diluted intestinal contents of infant rats were individually incubated in an enrichment medium containing 3'-sialyllactose (3'-SL), followed by the isolation of candidate strains from streaked agar plates and selection of 3'-SL-degrading strains using thin-layer chromatography. Subsequent genomic and phenotypic analyses identified all strains as .

Isolation and identification of species from feces of captive chimpanzees.

Recently, gut-dwelling bifidobacteria from chimpanzees, which are phylogenetically close to humans and have feeding habits similar to humans, have been frequently investigated. Given this, we speculated that like humans, chimpanzees would have a unique diversity of bifidobacteria. We herein describe a taxonomically novel member of bifidobacteria isolated from fecal samples of captive chimpanzees.

Comparison of the Growth of Lactobacillus delbrueckii, L. paracasei and L. plantarum on Inulin in Co-culture Systems.

Lactobacillus delbrueckii TU-1, which apparently takes intact inulin into its cells and then degrades it intracellularly, was co-cultured in vitro with L. paracasei KTN-5, an extracellular inulin degrader; or L. plantarum 22A-3, a strain that is able to utilize fructose but not inulin; or both in order to prequalify inulin as a prebiotic agent in vivo.

Difference in Degradation Patterns on Inulin-type Fructans among Strains of Lactobacillus delbrueckii and Lactobacillus paracasei.

Lactobacillus delbrueckii strains were assessed for their degradation patterns of various carbohydrates with specific reference to inulin-type fructans in comparison with those of Lactobacillus paracasei strains. Firstly, growth curves on glucose, fructose, sucrose and inulin-type fructans with increasing degrees of fructose polymerization (i.e.