This is the first report on the phylogenetic analysis of the community diversity of a single spontaneous cocoa bean box fermentation sample through a metagenomic approach involving 454 pyrosequencing. Several sequence-based and composition-based taxonomic profiling tools were used and evaluated to avoid software-dependent results and their outcome was validated by comparison with previously obt...

Because of the considerable differences in the reported values for serum folate in normal subjects using Lactobacillus casei as assay organism the effect of daylight when preparing media for this assay was studied. It was found that the growth properties of the medium were destroyed by direct sunlight and impaired by bright reflected sunlight, therefore reducing the sensitivity of the assay. Ad...

Direct assay of serum folate by mixing serum with a mixture of L. casei and medium without autoclaving was found to provide serum folate results similar to those by extraction of serum with heat. This procedure was found more reliable than that using the same technique with chloramphenicol and a strain of L. casei adapted to grow in this material. A portion of apparent folate activity assayed i...

Two-dimensional angle-resolved light scattering maps of individual rod-shaped bacteria are measured at the single-cell level. Using quantitative phase imaging and Fourier transform light scattering techniques, the light scattering patterns of individual bacteria in four rod-shaped species (Bacillus subtilis, Lactobacillus casei, Synechococcus elongatus, and Escherichia coli) are measured with u...

The adhesion of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG to human enterocyte-like Caco-2 cells was not inhibited by eight carbohydrates tested, namely N-acetyl-glucosamine, galactose, glucose, fructose, fucose, mannose, methyl-alpha-D-mannopyranoside and sucrose. The degree of hydrophobicity predicted the adhesion of L. rhamnosus GG to Caco-2 cells. L. rhamnosus GG, however, was able to compete with Escheric...