Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2003 Sep;69(9):5731-5.
doi: 10.1128/AEM.69.9.5731-5735.2003.

Selective plating underestimates abundance and shows differential recovery of bifidobacterial species from human feces

Juha H A Apajalahti  1 , Anu Kettunen, Päivi H Nurminen, Hanna Jatila, William E Holben
Affiliations

Selective plating underestimates abundance and shows differential recovery of bifidobacterial species from human feces

Juha H A Apajalahti et al. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2003 Sep.

Abstract

The aim of the present work was to compare the efficacies and levels of selectivity of different culture-dependent and -independent methods for analyzing bifidobacteria in human stool samples. The three different culture media used here significantly differed from each other, particularly with regard to the recovery of Bifidobacterium adolescentis. Bifidobacterium medium failed to recover B. adolescentis; Beerens medium recovered some B. adolescentis organisms (17% of total bifidobacteria), whereas tomato-Eugon medium recovered mainly B. adolescentis organisms (58% of total bifidobacteria). A culture-independent method that combines GC fractionation of bacterial community DNA and 16S rRNA sequencing indicated that B. adolescentis organisms accounted for 85% of all bifidobacteria. Methodological biases, such as those described in this paper, should be taken into account in interpreting earlier studies and designing future experiments.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIG. 1.
FIG. 1.
Effect of method on observed number of major bifidobacteria in human feces. BFM, BS medium, and TE medium are different bifidoselective media. GC-16S values are based on direct extraction of DNA from feces, percent G+C fractionation, and 16S rRNA sequencing as described in detail previously (1, 3).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Apajalahti, J. H. A., L. K. Särkilahti, B. R. Mäki, J. P. Heikkinen, P. H. Nurminen, and W. E. Holben. 1998. Effective recovery of bacterial DNA and percent-guanine-plus-cytosine-based analysis of community structure in the gastrointestinal tract of broiler chickens. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 64:4084-4088. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Apajalahti, J. H. A., A. Kettunen, M. R. Bedford, and W. E. Holben. 2001. Percent G+C profiling accurately reveals diet-related differences in the gastrointestinal microbial community of broiler chickens. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 67:5656-5667. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Apajalahti, J. H. A., H. Kettunen, A. Kettunen, W. E. Holben, P. H. Nurminen, N. Rautonen, and M. Mutanen. 2002. Culture-independent microbial community analysis reveals that inulin in the diet primarily affects previously unknown bacteria in the mouse cecum. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 68:4986-4995. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Beerens, H. 1991. Detection of bifidobacteria by using propionic acid as a selective agent. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 57:2418-2419. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Brigidi, P., B. Vitali, E. Swennen, L. Altomare, M. Rossi, and D. Matteuzzi. 2000. Specific detection of bifidobacterium strains in a pharmaceutical probiotic product and in human feces by polymerase chain reaction. Syst. Appl. Microbiol. 23:391-399. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms