Deep Exploration of Bifidobacteria through Metabolomics Study

Abstract

Bifidobacteria are probiotic bacteria with multiple health-promoting properties for human being. The global market for probiotics, especially for bifidobacteria is booming. However, the entire market is still at an early stage as there is nearly no fine products developed yet except the whole bacterial cells. The maturation of metabolomics technologies make it possible to study complex mixture with high-throughput, comprehensive maps and libraries. Therefore, we prospect that metabolomics studies mainly based on liquid/gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC/GC-MS) can deepen our understanding in detail during the study of metabolic mechanisms of bifidobacteria. These studies can be conducted at three phases, including non-targeted, targeted metabolomic analysis of bifidobacteria, and specific metabolites production through metabolic engineering and fermentation. Metabolomic studies of bifidobacteria will allow us to fully explore their metabolic mechanisms and to utilize metabolites that contribute to human health. In particular, bifidobacteria derived conjugated linoleic acids and bacteriocins are two kinds of fined products that may have great potentials in the future and can be used as food additives.