Quantitative PCR with 16S rRNA-Gene-Targeted Species-Specific Primers for Analysis of Human Intestinal Bifidobacteria

Top Cited Papers
Open Access
Abstract
A highly sensitive quantitative PCR detection method has been developed and applied to the distribution analysis of human intestinal bifidobacteria by combining real-time PCR withBifidobacteriumgenus- and species-specific primers. Real-time PCR detection of serially diluted DNA extracted from cultured bifidobacteria was linear for cell counts ranging from 106to 10 cells per PCR assay. It was also found that the method was applicable to the detection ofBifidobacteriumin feces when it was present at concentrations of >106cells per g of feces. Concerning the distribution ofBifidobacteriumspecies in intestinal flora, theBifidobacterium adolescentisgroup, theBifidobacterium catenulatumgroup, andBifidobacterium longumwere found to be the three predominant species by examination of DNA extracted from the feces of 46 healthy adults. We also examined changes in the population and composition ofBifidobacteriumspecies in human intestinal flora of six healthy adults over an 8-month period. The results showed that the composition of bifidobacterial flora was basically stable throughout the test period.

This publication has 61 references indexed in Scilit: