Abstract
Short-chain fructooligosaccharides (FOS) stimulate selectively the growth and activity of microorganisms in the colon providing positive health effects and well-being in humans and animals. The lack of accurate isolation methods, however, hampers the possibility of getting new potential fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS)-fermenting yeast or bacterial strains. A valuable screening procedure to visually detect bacterial and yeast strains able to ferment FOS in liquid or solid rich media supplemented with an innocuous pH indicator is described. Using this assay, 15 FOS-consuming strains isolated from different sources were successfully evaluated to prove the utility of the method. This screening procedure is a new and valuable tool in rapid large-scale detection of potential FOS fermenting-strains useful in food and health science. Key words: FOS-fermenting microorganisms, prebiotics, probiotics, symbiotics.
Highlights
The selection of bacterial or yeast strains able to efficiently ferment short chains-carbohydrates with prebiotic properties for example, fructooligosaccharides (FOS), is a subject of permanent interest
Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium strains for example, need elevated nutritional requirements in the media, and their growth in minimal medium is almost null. Following this line we developed a new feasible and simple pH shift-based procedure for rapid screening of pure cultures of FOS-fermenting yeast and bacterial strains growing in rich media
Bifidobacterium bifidum 15696, B. dentium 27678 were obtained from ATCC collection and E. coli TOP10F, Pichia pastoris GS115, P. pastoris X33 were purchased from Invitrogen SA
Summary
The selection of bacterial or yeast strains able to efficiently ferment short chains-carbohydrates with prebiotic properties for example, fructooligosaccharides (FOS), is a subject of permanent interest. The ability to ferment short chain oligosaccharides is a key property for any bacterial or yeast strain to provide desirable clinical effects (Kaplan and Hutkins, 2000). Main targets for FOS consumption in the colon are Bifidobacteria and Lactobacilli as these intestinal bacteria have shown several positive effects upon human or animals’ wellbeing (Kaplan and Hutkins, 2003). According to that explained above, if certain carbohydrates, such as fructooligosaccharides, are fermented by only specific beneficial microbial strains, a liquid or solid growth medium containing these “prebiotic” substrates as unique carbon sources could efficiently and directly select for those useful FOS-fermenters microbial strains
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