LAUSR

BACKGROUND Fructooligosaccharides (FOS) are a kind of prebiotic. Previous studies concerning the effect of FOS on intestinal microbiota have focused on Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus. However, the presence of other FOS-utilizing bacteria makes it necessary to investigate the quantitative changes in these bacterial species in the intestine after FOS intake. In this study, the composition of cecal and fecal microbiota was analyzed using MiSeq sequencing, and the abundance of FOS-utilizing bacteria was detected using quantitative PCR after the oral administration of FOS. RESULTS Species-specific primers for FOS-utilizing bacteria were designed with superior amplification efficiency for quantification. After FOS intervention, the relative abundance of Bifidobacterium pseudolongum in feces increased to 17.37% and the abundance reached 2.28 × 1010 CFU g-1 . The abundance of B. longum and B. breve did not change significantly. While the abundance of Ligilactobacillus murinus decreased, that of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum, Lacticaseibacillus paracasei, and Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus remained at approximately 104 CFU g-1 . CONCLUSION Species-specific primers for FOS-utilizing bacteria were successfully developed and we confirmed that FOS significantly increased the relative abundance and the abundance of B. pseudolongum in mice, while decreasing the proportion of Lactobacillus. The detection of these species using 16S rDNA sequencing and qPCR showed the same results. Further investigations are needed to reveal the response of the intestinal microbiota to different composition to FOS. These techniques will contribute to future studies about the composition and dynamics of the intestinal microflora. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.