title: Application of several molecular techniques to study numerically predominant Bifidobacterium spp. and Bacteroidales order strains in the feces of healthy children.
abstract: Bifidobacteria and Bacteroides-like bacteria are strictly anaerobic nonpathogenic members of human intestinal microflora. Here we describe an analysis of the species and subspecies composition of these bacterial populations in healthy children using a combination of culture and molecular methods at two different time points. It was found that B. bifidum and B. longum are the most common dominant taxons in infants aged between 8 and 16 months. The majority of the infants carried several dominant Bifidobacterium strains belonging to different species. Examination of the dominant bifidoflora in some of these children after a 5-year period showed major shifts in both species and strain composition, but the dominant strains remained unchanged in two children. The majority of dominant Bacteroides-like isolates belonged to species B. vulgatus and B. uniformis, but members of genera Alistipes and Barnesiella were common too. In addition, a novel approach to species identification of Bacteroidales order bacteria using amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis (ARDRA) is described.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Virology, Russian State Medical University, Moscow 117997, Russian Federation. andre@ints.ru <andre@ints.ru>
authors.forename: Andrei N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Shkoporov
authors.forename: Ekaterina V
authors.initials: EV
authors.lastname: Khokhlova
authors.forename: Elena V
authors.initials: EV
authors.lastname: Kulagina
authors.forename: Vladimir V
authors.initials: VV
authors.lastname: Smeianov
authors.forename: Lyudmila I
authors.initials: LI
authors.lastname: Kafarskaia
authors.forename: Boris A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Efimov
mesh_terms: D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D001431:Bacteriological Techniques; D001439:Bacteroides / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D001644:Bifidobacterium / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal