Bifidobacterium spp. from non human primates: a source of novel species

Co-evolution between host and gut microbiota is a current hot topic: gut microbe relationships are influenced by host genotype, and gut microbial population differs according to host phylogeny. For example gut microbiota within Great Apes reflects the phylogenetic history of their hosts and hypotheses that close host-species are functionally interchangeable were suggested. The bifidobacterial diversity in several subjects of primates has been studied to better understand the co-evolution with host along the evolutionary time-scale. In Great Apes the human species Bifidobacterium adolescentis was found in Pongo pygmaeus, while B. angulatum and B. dentium were found in Pan troglodytes. The new species B. moukalabense was described in Gorilla gorilla. Ten subjects selected from the two divergent lineages of Strepsirrhini (Lemuridae) and Simiiformes (Callitrichidae) were studied in the present work. Interestingly in Callithrix spp. and in Saguinus spp., together with the five previously described species B. callitrichos, B. stellenboschense, B. reuteri, B. saguini and B. biavati, seventeen new bifidobacterial species were found, showing a strong association with host species. In particular in two adult subjects of Lemur catta and Eulemur macaco (Lemuridae) two novel species were found: B. lemurum and a new one. B. aesculapii and five additional novel species were isolated from 5 baby subjects of the New World Monkey Callithrix jacchus. Nine novel Bifidobacterium spp., together with three bifidobacterial species previously found in both Saguinus midas and Callithrix jacchus, were found in an adult subject of Saguinus oedipus (Callitrichidae).