Bifidobacterium bifidum

About the microbe

Disease and Treatments

Taxonomy

Visualizing the microbe

Diagnostic tests

References

About the author

About the microbe

Bifidobacterium bifidum is one of the most common probiotic bacteria found in mammals. It is responsible for maintaining gut health and aiding in digestion. It has also been found to reduce the risk of diarrhea and E. coli infection.

Disease and Treatments

Is it pathogenic? Does it benefit the host?

It is not a pathogen and it does not cause a disease. Bifidobacterium are able to utilize different dietary carbohydrates that are indigestible. The carbohydrates often include plant-derived oligo and polysaccharides. They have also shown capabilities of improving overall health, reducing disease risk, reducing IBS symptoms, and preventing travelers’ diarrhea.

Where is it found?

It is typically found in the colon, lower small intestine, breast milk, and vagina.

Why should you care about it?

People care about Bifidobacterium bifidum because it is an indicator of good gut health. The absence of it indicates poor gut health. In addition, as stated above, this microbe is found to a positive effect on general health along with reducing the risks of diseases and cancer. There are no current commercial or ecological applications, however some studies show that consumption of this microbe can prevent and reduce symptoms of common intestinal illnesses.

Taxonomy

Domain: Bacteria
Kingdom: Eubacteria
Phylum: Actinobacteria
Class: Actinobacteria
Order: Bifidobacteriales
Family: Bifidobacteriaceae
Genus: Bifidobacterium
Species: Bifidobacterium bifidum

Visualizing the microbe

The image on the right is a gram-stain. This microbe is gram-positive. The shape of the cells is bifid (Y-shaped) bacilli (rods).
The image on the left is a scanning electron microscope (SEM) image. The researcher dyed the microbe green and the surrounding mucus red.

Diagnostic tests

Below are a series of diagnostics tests to be able to differentiate Bifidobacterium bifidum from other bacteria.

Blood Agar

The results should show no hemolytic activity for Bifidobacterium bifidum. There will be no colorless zones around the inoculation site. It will demonstrate gamma-hemolysis.

MacConkey Agar

The results should show that the growth of Bifidobacterium bifidum is inhibited on this agar because it is gram positive. However, it does ferment lactose, so the color would change from yellow to reddish/pink. Since this is an intestinal bacterium, the bile salts do not inhibit its growth.

Mannitol Salt Agar

The results should show that Bifidobacterium bifidum growth will be inhibited because it is gram positive. It also will not induce a color change from red to yellow because it does not ferment mannitol.

DNAse

The results should show a negative result, meaning Bifidobacterium bifidum does not have deoxyribonuclease activity. There would be no colorless zone.

Anaerobic Chamber

The results should show that Bifidobacterium bifidum will grow in the chamber because it is anaerobic.

Gram Stain

The process of gram staining will color gram positive bacteria red/purple because of the crystal violet and iodine. As shown, Bifidobacterium bifidum is gram positive.

Phenol Red Broth

The results should show that Bifidobacterium bifidum does ferment glucose and produces a gas product (heterofermentative).

SIM Medium Deep Agar

The results should show that Bifidobacterium bifidum is not motile, does not hydrolyze tryptophan, and does not reduce sulfur. It will not produce a color change for indole nor a black precipitate for the reduction of sulfur.

Catalase

The results will show that Bifidobacterium bifidum does not produce catalase as it does not produce bubbles when exposed to hydrogen peroxide.

Oxidase

The results will show that Bifidobacterium bifidum does not produce oxidase as there will not be a color change when exposed to a reagent.

References

Mitsuoka T. 1990. Bifidobacteria and their role in human health. Journal of Industrial Microbiology 6:263–267.
Bifidobacterium bifidum (Tissier) Orla-Jensen ATCC ® 29521^TM.
Engevik MA, Luk B, Chang-Graham AL, Hall A, Herrmann B, Ruan W, Endres BT, Shi Z, Garey KW, Hyser JM, Versalovic J. 2019. Bifidobacterium dentium Fortifies the Intestinal Mucus Layer via Autophagy and Calcium Signaling Pathways. mBio 10.
Michelini S, Oki K, Yanokura E, Shimakawa Y, Modesto M, Mattarelli P, Biavati B, Watanabe K. 2016. Bifidobacterium myosotis sp. nov., Bifidobacterium tissieri sp. nov. and Bifidobacterium hapali sp. nov., isolated from faeces of baby common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus L.). International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, 66:255–265.
2020. Biochemical Test of Bifidobacterium bifidum | Biochemical Test of Bacteria. Microbe Notes.
Pokusaeva K, Fitzgerald GF, van Sinderen D. 2011. Carbohydrate metabolism in Bifidobacteria. Genes Nutr 6:285–306.
Palmer C, Bik EM, DiGiulio DB, Relman DA, Brown PO. 2007. Development of the Human Infant Intestinal Microbiota. PLOS Biology 5:e177.
Mullié C, Léké A. Fig. 1 Gram-stained bifidobacteria with typical Y-shaped rods ( × 1000). ResearchGate.
Fesseha H, Amenu K. Figure 2: Gram stain of Bifidobacterium spp. Source: (Engevik et al., 2019). ResearchGate.
Lee J-H, O’Sullivan DJ. 2010. Genomic Insights into Bifidobacteria. Microbiol Mol Biol Rev 74:378–416.
Matsuki T, Watanabe K, Fujimoto J, Kado Y, Takada T, Matsumoto K, Tanaka R. 2004. Quantitative PCR with 16S rRNA-Gene-Targeted Species-Specific Primers for Analysis of Human Intestinal Bifidobacteria. Appl Environ Microbiol 70:167–173.
Matsuki T, Watanabe K, Tanaka R, Oyaizu H. 1998. Rapid identification of human intestinal bifidobacteria by 16S rRNA-targeted species- and group-specific primers. FEMS Microbiol Lett 167:113–121.
Tissier H. 1900. Recherches sur la flore intestinale des nourrissons: (état normal et pathologique).
Kim MJ, Ku S, Kim SY, Lee HH, Jin H, Kang S, Li R, Johnston TV, Park MS, Ji GE. 2018. Safety Evaluations of Bifidobacterium bifidum BGN4 and Bifidobacterium longum BORI. 5. International Journal of Molecular Sciences 19:1422.

About the author

My name is Jacob and I am currently a third-year Microbiology major at the University of Florida. I plan to continue my studies in medical school in pursuit of becoming a clinical oncologist.

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