HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Mattarelli, P. Articles by Biavati, B. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Mattarelli, P. Articles by Biavati, B. Agricola Articles by Mattarelli, P. Articles by Biavati, B.

Proposal to reclassify the three biotypes of Bifidobacterium longum as three subspecies: Bifidobacterium longum subsp. longum subsp. nov., Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis comb. nov. and Bifidobacterium longum subsp. suis comb. nov.

¹ Department of Agroenvironmental Sciences, Bologna University, Via Fanin 42, 20127 Bologna, Italy
² Institute of Food Quality and Safety, School of Veterinary medicine Hannover, Bischofsholer Damm 15, D-30173 Hannover, Germany
³ Bactéries Lactiques et Immunité des Muqueuses, Institut Pasteur de Lille 1, Rue Prof. Calmette, 59019 Lille Cedex, France

Correspondence
Paola Mattarelli
paola.mattarelli{at}unibo.it

In the year 2002, Bifidobacterium longum, Bifidobacterium infantis and Bifidobacterium suis were unified into a single species, Bifidobacterium longum, preserving the former species names through the creation of the three biotypes ‘longum’, ‘infantis’ and ‘suis’. Consequently, the use of the species names B. infantis and B. suis was to be discontinued. The above taxonomic rearrangement of B. longum was based on DNA–DNA hybridizations and 16S rRNA and HSP60 gene sequence analysis. However, a variety of other genotypic techniques including ribotyping, amplified rDNA restriction analysis (ARDRA), randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD)-PCR, BOX-PCR, PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), comparison of the recA, tuf and ldh gene sequences, plasmid profiling and considerable variation in carbohydrate fermentation patterns as well as results of starch and PAGE electrophoresis experiments clearly discriminate former B. longum, B. infantis and B. suis strains. In the present paper we compile this published information and propose the description of Bifidobacterium longum subsp. longum subsp. nov., Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis comb. nov. and Bifidobacterium longum subsp. suis comb. nov. The International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes Subcommittee on the taxonomy of Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus and related organisms is in favour of this proposal. The type strains of Bifidobacterium longum subsp. longum subsp. nov., subsp. infantis comb. nov. and subsp. suis comb. nov. are E194b (variant a)^T (ATCC 15707^T=DSM 20219^T), S12^T (=ATCC 15697^T=DSM 20088^T) and Su859^T (ATCC 27533^T=DSM 20211^T), respectively.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				D. A. Sela, J. Chapman, A. Adeuya, J. H. Kim, F. Chen, T. R. Whitehead, A. Lapidus, D. S. Rokhsar, C. B. Lebrilla, J. B. German, et al. The genome sequence of Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis reveals adaptations for milk utilization within the infant microbiome PNAS, December 2, 2008; 105(48): 18964 - 18969. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]