Monitoring the Antibacterial Effect of Rosin Acids in an Austrian Beet Sugar Plant by Amplicon-Based Sequencing and Flow Cytometry

For decades, microorganisms in beet sugar production have been studied using culture-based methods. However, these methods are not sufficient to describe such a complex bacterial community. In this study, therefore, an amplicon-based sequencing technique (Illumina MiSeq platform) was applied to characterize the bacterial community and its dynamics in the extraction area and juice purification station of an Austrian beet sugar plant. Depending on the process conditions thermophilic bacteria, such as Geobacillus spp., Caenibacillus spp., and Thermus spp., and mesophilic bacteria, such as Leuconostoc spp. and Bacillus spp., were found. Besides these microbiological characteristics, the antimicrobial effect of a rosin acid-based product (Defostab 220) on the bacterial communities was investigated in industrial and laboratory trials. The antimicrobial effect of a given concentration of rosin acid varies from bacteriostatic to bactericidal effects on different occurring groups of bacteria

Butyric acid producing clostridia in cheese \u2013 towards the completion of knowledge by means of an amalgamate of technologies

Late-blowing \u2013 severe cheese spoilage caused by clostridia \u2013 is a long-standing problem of economic importance for dairy processors. However, there is still a paucity of relevant data on clostridia in cheese that would allow some tailored intervention. The main aim of this study was to identify and quantify clostridia in late-blown cheese using a polyphasic methodological approach. Fifty-three cheeses of different origins were analysed using culture-dependent (MPN, enrichment, molecular identification of isolates) and culture-independent methods (real-time PCR, PCR-DGGE and Illumina 16S rDNA sequencing). Using culture-dependent methods, clostridial isolates were collected from several cheese samples, while fewer positive results were obtained with the samples when using the MPN procedure than real-time PCR or PCR-DGGE. In contrast to other studies, an extremely low diversity of Clostridium species was observed. Surprisingly, Illumina 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing revealed relative abundances of clostridia below the detection limit despite apparent cheese spoilage

Five novel bifidobacterial species isolated from faeces of primates in two czech zoos: Bifidobacterium erythrocebi sp. nov., bifidobacterium moraviense sp. nov., bifidobacterium oedipodis sp. nov., bifidobacterium olomucense sp. nov. and bifidobacterium panos sp. nov

Five Bifidobacterium strains, VB23T, VB24T, VB25T, VB26T and VB31T, were isolated from chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), cotton-top tamarin (Saguinus oedipus), Goeldi’s marmoset (Callimico goeldii), moustached tamarin (Saguinus mystax) and patas monkey (Erythrocebus patas), respectively, which were kept in two Czech zoos. These strains were isolated from faecal samples and were Gram-positive, non-motile, non-sporulating, anaerobic and fructose-6-phosphate phosphoketolase-positive. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA revealed close relatedness between VB23T and Bifidobacterium angulatum LMG 11039T (96.0 %), VB24T and Bifidobacterium pullorum subsp. pullorum DSM 20433T (96.1 %), VB25T and Bifidobacterium goeldii LMG 30939T (96.5 %), VB26T and Bifidobacterium imperatoris LMG 30297T (98.1 %), and VB31T and B. angulatum LMG 11039T (99.40 %). Inter-nal transcribed spacer profiling revealed that VB23T, VB24T, VB25T, VB26T and VB31T had highest similarity to Bifidobacterium breve LMG 13208T (77.2 %), Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis ATCC 15697T (85.8 %), Bifidobacterium biavatii DSM 23969T (76.9 %), B. breve LMG 13208T (81.2 %) and B. angulatum LMG 11039T (88.2 %), respectively. Average nucleotide identity (ANI) and digital DNA–DNA hybridization (dDDH) analyses with their closest neighbours supported the independent phylogenetic posi-tions of the strains with values between 86.3 and 94.3 % for ANI and 25.8 and 54.9 % for dDDH. These genomic and phylogenetic analyses suggested that the evaluated strains were novel Bifidobacterium species named Bifidobacterium erythrocebi sp. nov. (VB31T=DSM 109960T=CCUG 73843T), Bifidobacterium moraviense sp. nov. (VB25T=DSM 109958T=CCUG 73842T), Bifidobac-terium oedipodis sp. nov. (VB24T=DSM 109957T=CCUG 73932T), Bifidobacterium olomucense sp. nov. (VB26T=DSM 109959T=CCUG 73845T) and Bifidobacterium panos sp. nov. (VB23T=DSM 109963T=CCUG 73840T)