Bifidobacterial occurrence in giant bats: the two new species Bifidobacterium vespertilionis and Bifidobacterium rousettii

In the gut of many mammals, the diversity of Bifidobacterium species is still not well studied. The species in the genus were previously isolated from various hosts like cow, rabbit, pig, non-human primates, and human being. In the present work, for the first time, Bifidobacterium species were isolated from the new host Egyptian fruit bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus). Several studies have suggested the importance of isolating and identifying novel strains of the genus Bifidobacterium from various animals, including humans, in order to understand how they are mostly distributed and, especially, which are their phenotypic and genotypic characteristics, thus allowing the reconstruction of a more robust bifidobacterial phylogeny. Therefore, the objective of this study was to describe the presence and diversity of cultivable bifidobacteria in the faeces of Egyptian fruit bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus).Bifidobacterial strains were isolated from feces of Rousettus aegyptiacus housed in Parco Natura Viva in Italy. Based on BOX-PCR and ERIC profiles, the 14 isolates were categorized into six groups. Comparative sequence analysis of 16S rRNA genes revealed that the studied strains were classified into five clusters. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, strains in Cluster I (RST 8 and RST 16T), Cluster II (RST 9T and RST 27), Cluster III (RST 7 and RST 11), Cluster IV (RST 19), Cluster V (RST 17) were closest to Bifidobacterium avesanii DSM 100685T (96.3%), Bifidobacterium callitrichos DSM 23973T (99.2% and 99.7%), Bifidobacterium tissieri DSM 100201T(99.7 and 99.2%), Bifidobacterium reuteri DSM 23975T(98.9%), Bifidobacterium myosotis DSM 100196T(99.3%), respectively. Strains in Cluster III, Cluster IV and Cluster V were identified as the known species, whereas strains in Cluster I and Cluster II represent two novel species for which the names Bifidobacterium vespertilionis sp. nov. (RST 16T = BCRC 81138T) and Bifidobacterium rousetti sp. nov. (RST 9T = BCRC 81136T).