Open AccessRapid Identification, Differentiation, and Proposed New Taxonomic Classification of Bifidobacterium lactis
Author(s) -
Marco Ventura,
Ralf Zink
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
applied and environmental microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.552
H-Index - 324
eISSN - 1070-6291
pISSN - 0099-2240
DOI - 10.1128/aem.68.12.6429-6434.2002
Subject(s) - bifidobacterium animalis , biology , 16s ribosomal rna , intergenic region , ribosomal rna , microbiology and biotechnology , 23s ribosomal rna , subspecies , genetics , bifidobacterium , internal transcribed spacer , spacer dna , identification (biology) , gene , bacteria , genome , lactobacillus , rna , botany , ribosome , paleontology
Identification of Bifidobacterium lactis and Bifidobacterium animalis is problematic because of phenotypic and genetic homogeneities and has raised the question of whether they belong to one unique taxon. Analysis of the 16S-23S internally transcribed spacer region of B. lactis DSM10140(T), B. animalis ATCC 25527(T), and six potential B. lactis strains suggested two distinct clusters. Two specific 16S-23S spacer rRNA gene-targeted primers have been developed for specific detection of B. animalis. All of the molecular techniques used (B. lactis or B. animalis PCR primers, enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus PCR) demonstrated that B. lactis and B. animalis form two main groups and suggest a revision of the strains assigned to B. animalis. We propose that B. lactis should be separated from B. animalis at the subspecies level.