Investigation and exploitation of propionibacteria, bifidobacteria and lactobacilli naturally present in human breast milk – Sciex

Human breast milk contributes to immune system maturation, organ development and gut microbiota establishment. Major components of breast milk are lactose, lipids, proteins and structurally highly diverse human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs). Breast milk from healthy mothers also contains about 10E4 live bacteria belonging to diverse bacterial groups; bacterial strains present in breast milk partly overlap with species recovered from the neonate gut. Both breast milk and neonate gut communities depend on the degradation of lactose and HMOs to gain energy. A key metabolite in fermentative activity of both communities is lactate as it is connecting a trophic chain of lactate producers and utilizers. Infant formula lack the benefits transferred by HMOs, and bacteria naturally present in breast milk. Formulas can be supplemented with prebiotics and/or probiotic bacteria to enhance infant gut health. We hypothesize, that a probiotic consortium designed based on the tropic lactate chain in breast milk and neonate gut can provide enhanced health benefits in comparison to commonly added probiotics (lactic acid bacteria, bifidobacteria). This project has three objectives:

1. Accurate typing of so far uncharacterized bacterial isolates from human breast milk.
2. Physiological characterization (substrate utilization, metabolite formation) of isolates from human breast milk using high throughput screening in 96-well microtiter plates.
3. Evaluation of growth characteristics of three strain consortia consisting of one HMO degrader, a utilizer of HMO components, and a lactate utilizer.