Authenticity of Commercial Probiotics and Taxonomic Strategies of Bifidobacteria spp

Author(s): Rajagopal Kammara, Athira Cheruvari, Zranseu Ella Benedicte Aka

The article focuses on two major probiotic-related issues, the first one being the quality control and authenticity of commercially available probiotic products, the second one is various taxonomic strategies to be followed for Bifidobacterial spp. Bifidobacteria, lactic acid bacteria, and a few Enterococcal spp are probiotic microbes. The isolation and identification of probiotic microbes, other than Bifidobacterium, are simple and straightforward. PCR, reverse transcription–PCR, and many more techniques have been developed, and are in extensive use. However, they are irreproducible, laborious, and unreliable for Bifidobacterium. Almost all the problems involve the intrinsic nature of anaerobic or microaerophilic bacteria. Therefore, researchers have concentrated on developing protein-based assays for the simple and rapid identification of members of Bifidobacterium. In this review, I discuss the different methods available for the isolation and identification of this genus. The emphasis is on the F6PPK assay because it is unique to Bifidobacterium spp.