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Boyte ME, Benkowski A, Pane M, Shehata HR. Probiotic and postbiotic analytical methods: a perspective of available enumeration techniques. Front Microbiol 2023; 14:1304621. [PMID: 38192285 PMCID: PMC10773886 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1304621] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2023] [Accepted: 11/20/2023] [Indexed: 01/10/2024] Open
Abstract
Probiotics are the largest non-herbal/traditional dietary supplements category worldwide. To be effective, a probiotic strain must be delivered viable at an adequate dose proven to deliver a health benefit. The objective of this article is to provide an overview of the various technologies available for probiotic enumeration, including a general description of each technology, their advantages and limitations, and their potential for the future of the probiotics industry. The current "gold standard" for analytical quantification of probiotics in the probiotic industry is the Plate Count method (PC). PC measures the bacterial cell's ability to proliferate into detectable colonies, thus PC relies on cultivability as a measure of viability. Although viability has widely been measured by cultivability, there has been agreement that the definition of viability is not limited to cultivability. For example, bacterial cells may exist in a state known as viable but not culturable (VBNC) where the cells lose cultivability but can maintain some of the characteristics of viable cells as well as probiotic properties. This led to questioning the association between viability and cultivability and the accuracy of PC in enumerating all the viable cells in probiotic products. PC has always been an estimate of the number of viable cells and not a true cell count. Additionally, newer probiotic categories such as Next Generation Probiotics (NGPs) are difficult to culture in routine laboratories as NGPs are often strict anaerobes with extreme sensitivity to atmospheric oxygen. Thus, accurate quantification using culture-based techniques will be complicated. Another emerging category of biotics is postbiotics, which are inanimate microorganisms, also often referred to as tyndallized or heat-killed bacteria. Obviously, culture dependent methods are not suitable for these products, and alternative methods are needed for their quantification. Different methodologies provide a more complete picture of a heterogeneous bacterial population versus PC focusing exclusively on the eventual multiplication of the cells. Alternative culture-independent techniques including real-time PCR, digital PCR and flow cytometry are discussed. These methods can measure viability beyond cultivability (i.e., by measuring cellular enzymatic activity, membrane integrity or membrane potential), and depending on how they are designed they can achieve strain-specific enumeration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marie-Eve Boyte
- NutraPharma Consulting Services Inc., Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, QC, Canada
| | | | - Marco Pane
- Probiotical Research s.r.l., Novara, Italy
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Liu J, Yang L, Kjellerup BV, Xu Z. Viable but nonculturable (VBNC) state, an underestimated and controversial microbial survival strategy. Trends Microbiol 2023; 31:1013-1023. [PMID: 37225640 DOI: 10.1016/j.tim.2023.04.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2022] [Revised: 04/22/2023] [Accepted: 04/24/2023] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
As a unique microbial response to adverse circumstances, the viable but nonculturable (VBNC) state is characterized by the loss of culturability of microbial cells on/in nutrient media that normally support their growth, while maintaining metabolic activity. These cells can resuscitate to a culturable state under suitable conditions. Given the intrinsic importance of the VBNC state and recent debates surrounding it, there is a need to redefine and standardize the term, and to address essential questions such as 'How to differentiate VBNC from other similar terms?' and 'How can VBNC cells be standardly and accurately determined?'. This opinion piece aims at contributing to an improved understanding of the VBNC state and promoting its proper handling as an underestimated and controversial microbial survival strategy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Junyan Liu
- College of Light Industry and Food Science, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Lingnan Specialty Food Science and Technology, Academy of Contemporary Agricultural Engineering Innovations, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Guangzhou 510225, China; Key Laboratory of Green Processing and Intelligent Manufacturing of Lingnan Specialty Food, Ministry of Agriculture, Guangzhou 510225, China
| | - Liang Yang
- School of Medicine, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Birthe Veno Kjellerup
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
| | - Zhenbo Xu
- School of Food Science and Engineering, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory for Green Processing of Natural Products and Product Safety, Engineering Research Center of Starch and Vegetable Protein Processing Ministry of Education, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China; Department of Laboratory Medicine, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, China.
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Qin ZX, Chen GZ, Yang QQ, Wu YJ, Sun CQ, Yang XM, Luo M, Yi CR, Zhu J, Chen WH, Liu Z. Cross-Platform Transcriptomic Data Integration, Profiling, and Mining in Vibrio cholerae. Microbiol Spectr 2023; 11:e0536922. [PMID: 37191528 PMCID: PMC10269641 DOI: 10.1128/spectrum.05369-22] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/31/2022] [Accepted: 04/24/2023] [Indexed: 05/17/2023] Open
Abstract
A large number of transcriptome studies generate important data and information for the study of pathogenic mechanisms of pathogens, including Vibrio cholerae. V. cholerae transcriptome data include RNA-seq and microarray: microarray data mainly include clinical human and environmental samples, and RNA-seq data mainly focus on laboratory processing conditions, including different stresses and experimental animals in vivo. In this study, we integrated the data sets of both platforms using Rank-in and the Limma R package normalized Between Arrays function, achieving the first cross-platform transcriptome data integration of V. cholerae. By integrating the entire transcriptome data, we obtained the profiles of the most active or silent genes. By transferring the integrated expression profiles into the weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA) pipeline, we identified the important functional modules of V. cholerae in vitro stress treatment, gene manipulation, and in vitro culture as DNA transposon, chemotaxis and signaling, signal transduction, and secondary metabolic pathways, respectively. The analysis of functional module hub genes revealed the uniqueness of clinical human samples; however, under specific expression patterning, the Δhns, ΔoxyR1 strains, and tobramycin treatment group showed high expression profile similarity with human samples. By constructing a protein-protein interaction (PPI) interaction network, we discovered several unreported novel protein interactions within transposon functional modules. IMPORTANCE We used two techniques to integrate RNA-seq data for laboratory studies with clinical microarray data for the first time. The interactions between V. cholerae genes were obtained from a global perspective, as well as comparing the similarity between clinical human samples and the current experimental conditions, and uncovering the functional modules that play a major role under different conditions. We believe that this data integration can provide us with some insight and basis for elucidating the pathogenesis and clinical control of V. cholerae.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zi-Xin Qin
- Department of Biotechnology, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China
| | - Guo-Zhong Chen
- Department of Biotechnology, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China
| | - Qian-Qian Yang
- Department of Biotechnology, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China
| | - Ying-Jian Wu
- Department of Bioinformatics and Systems Biology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology College of Life Sciences and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China
| | - Chu-Qing Sun
- Department of Bioinformatics and Systems Biology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology College of Life Sciences and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China
| | - Xiao-Man Yang
- Department of Biotechnology, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China
| | - Mei Luo
- Department of Biotechnology, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China
| | - Chun-Rong Yi
- Department of Biotechnology, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China
| | - Jun Zhu
- Department of Biotechnology, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China
| | - Wei-Hua Chen
- Department of Bioinformatics and Systems Biology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology College of Life Sciences and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China
| | - Zhi Liu
- Department of Biotechnology, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China
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Searching pathogenic bacteria in the rare biosphere of the ocean. Curr Opin Biotechnol 2023; 80:102894. [PMID: 36680847 DOI: 10.1016/j.copbio.2023.102894] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2022] [Revised: 12/07/2022] [Accepted: 12/20/2022] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
Abstract
Harmful marine bacteria, such as Vibrio or Aeromonas species, typically exist at low abundance in ocean environments but represent a reservoir from which epidemics can arise. Particularly, Vibrio strains and their associated infections are on the rise globally due to increasing sea surface temperature representing an emergent threat for human and animal health also being responsible for large economic losses in the aquaculture industry worldwide. New technological approaches are needed to improve strategies targeting these pathogens. This review discusses new approaches based on improved sampling strategies and novel analytical methods offering increased accuracy, high throughput, and informativeness to study and detect microbial pathogens in the marine environment. Detecting and characterizing ultra-low-abundance pathogenic strains can serve as a critical tool in risk management and outbreak prevention of diseases caused by emerging marine pathogens.
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Kiefer A, Byrd PM, Tang P, Jones G, Galles K, Fallico V, Wong C. Viability droplet digital polymerase chain reaction accurately enumerates probiotics and provides insight into damage experienced during storage. Front Microbiol 2022; 13:966264. [PMID: 36386724 PMCID: PMC9648155 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.966264] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2022] [Accepted: 09/26/2022] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Probiotics are typically enumerated by agar plate counting (PC) techniques. PC has several limitations including poor specificity, high variability, inability to enumerate dead cells, viable but non-culturable cells and cells in complex matrices. Viability droplet digital polymerase chain reaction (v-ddPCR) is an emerging enumeration technique with improved specificity, precision, and the ability to enumerate cells in varying states of culturability or in complex matrices. Good correlation and agreement between v-ddPCR and PC is well documented, but not much research has been published on the comparison when enumerating freeze-dried (FD) probiotics during storage. In this study, v-ddPCR utilizing PE51 (PE51-ddPCR), a combination of propidium monoazide (PMA) and ethidium monoazide (EMA), was evaluated as alternative enumeration technique to PC on blends of four FD probiotic strains over the course of a 3-month storage study with accelerated conditions. When PMA and EMA are combined (PE51), this study demonstrates agreement (bias = 7.63e+9, LOA = 4.38e+10 to 5.9e+10) and association (r = 0.762) between PC and v-ddPCR, at or above levels of an accepted alternative method. Additionally, v-ddPCR with individual dyes PMA and EMA provide insight into how they individually contribute to the viable counts obtained by PE51-ddPCR and provide a more specific physiological understanding of how probiotics cope with or experience damage during storage.
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