Abstract
Bifidobacteria are health-promoting human gut inhabitants, but accurate species-level composition of the gut bifidobacteria and their responses to probiotic intervention have not been fully explored. This was a follow-up work of our previous study, in which 104 volunteers from six different Asiatic regions (Singapore, Indonesia, Xinjiang, Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Mongolia) were recruited. The gut microbiota and their responses towards Lactobacillus casei Zhang (LCZ) intervention were characterized (at days 0, 7, and 14; 14 days after stopping probiotic intake), and region-based differential responses were observed after LCZ intervention. This study further investigated changes in the species-level gut bifidobacteria by PacBio small-molecule real-time sequencing (SMRT) using bifidobacteria-specific primers. Firstly, this study found that Bifidobacterium adolescentis (42.58%) and Bifidobacterium breve (26.34%) were the core species across the six Asiatic regions. Secondly, principal coordinate analysis of probiotic-induced changes in the gut bifidobacterial microbiota (represented by weighted UniFrac distances) grouped the six regions into two clusters, namely northern (Xinjiang, Gansu, Inner Mongolia, and Mongolia) and southern (Singapore, Indonesia) regions. Thirdly, LCZ intervention induced region-based differential responses of gut bifidobacterial microbiota. The relative abundance of Bifidobacterium animalis in subjects from northern but not southern region substantially increased after LCZ intervention. Moreover, LCZ intervention significantly increased the weighted UniFrac distances in the southern but not northern subjects 7 days after LCZ intervention. The gut B. adolescentis correlated significantly and negatively with the weighted UniFrac distances of the baseline gut bifidobacterial microbiota in subjects of northern but not southern region, suggesting a possible homeostatic effect of LCZ on the gut bifidobacterial population of northern but not southern subjects. Collectively, our study found that probiotic-induced responses of the gut bifidobacterial microbiota varied with subjects’ geographic origins, and B. adolescentis might play a role in maintaining the overall stability of the gut bifidobacterial population.
Key points
• The core species in the six Asiatic regions are Bifidobacterium adolescentis and Bifidobacterium breve.
• The gut bifidobacterial microbiota in people from various geographic origins showed different responses on probiotic administration.
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Data availability
Raw sequences reported in this article have been deposited in the Metagenomics Rapid Annotation, using the Subsystem Technology server (MG-RAST server; project number mgp93392).
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We sincerely thank all the volunteers for their participation.
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This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31720103911), China Agriculture Research System of MOF and MARA, the Science and Technology Major Projects of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFE0123500).
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ZS and HZ designed the study and were responsible for project management and administration. FZ, XB, JZ, and LS collected the samples and conducted the experiments. FZ, XB, and HJ analyzed the data. FZ and XB wrote the manuscript. LK and TS provided advice and modified the manuscript extensively. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript.
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Zhao, F., Bai, X., Zhang, J. et al. Gut Bifidobacterium responses to probiotic Lactobacillus casei Zhang administration vary between subjects from different geographic regions. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 106, 2665–2675 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-022-11868-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-022-11868-4