The common characteristics of the number of viable bacteria in the first passage culture (solid-liquid-liquid circulation subculture) were: the number of viable bacteria in different generations of BZ11, BZ25, and SQ-4 all increased first and then reached the stable stage (P > 0.05). With the increase of passage times, the time to reach the stable stage tended to shorten. However,
Bifidobacterium BZ11 and BZ25's growth characteristics also showed apparent differences from those of
Lactiplantibacillus plantarum SQ-4.
Figure 2 shows that because the fermentation medium and seed medium is the same, the strains quickly enter the growth phase and reach the maximum and stable phase, but each strain also has its growth characteristics.
Figure 2A shows that BZ11 reaches its maximum value (8.85 log CFU/mL) within 24 hours from 1ST-1 to 1ST-4 and then enters a stable period. At 1ST-2, the maximum value (8.98 log CFU/mL) was reached in 28 hours. At 1ST-3 hours, the maximum value was 9.77 log CFU/mL in 20 hours. At 1ST-4 hours, the maximum value (8.86 log CFU/mL) was reached in 24 hours.
Figure 2B shows that BZ25 reaches its maximum value (8.54 log CFU/mL) within 24 hours at 1ST-1 and then enters a stable period. At 1ST-2, the maximum value (8.86 log CFU/mL) was reached in 28 hours; at 1ST-3, the maximum value was 9.73 log CFU/mL in 20 hours. At 1ST-4, the maximum value was 9.64 log CFU/mL in 24 hours.
Figure 2C shows that SQ-4 reaches its maximum value (10.36 log CFU/mL) within 24 hours at 1ST-1, then enters a stable period. At 1ST-2, the maximum value (10.59 log CFU/mL) was reached in 24 hours. 1ST-3 hours, the maximum value was reached in 20 hours (9.03 log CFU/mL); At 1ST-4, the maximum value (8.94 log CFU/mL) was reached in 24 hours.
Figure 2D indicates that the viable bacteria concentration of
Bifidobacterium BZ11 and BZ25 increased (
P < 0.05) with consecutive passages from 1 to 3. The highest concentrations of the first generations of BZ11 and BZ25 were 7.20 × 10
8 CFU/mL and 3.74 × 10
8 CFU/mL, respectively, while the concentrations of BZ11 and BZ25 in the third generations were 6.20×10
9 CFU/mL and 6.80×10
9 CFU/mL, respectively, showing significant (
P < 0.05) increases of 8.6 times and 18.2 times compared with the first generation. However, in the fourth generation, the viable bacteria concentration of BZ11 and BZ25 decreased to 8.18 × 10
8 CFU/mL and 4.39 × 10
9 CFU/mL, respectively (P < 0.05). So, the number of passages was not as high as possible.
Lactiplantibacillus plantarum SQ-4 exhibited another growth characteristic, which is the general microbial growth characteristic of not increasing with the increase of the number of passages but decreasing (
P < 0.05) from 8.97 × 10
10 CFU/mL to 9.06 × 10
8 CFU/mL (
Figure 2).
Figure 2.
Changes in living cell concentrations of strains with the solid-liquid-liquid passage culture, (A) BZ11, (B) BZ25, (C) SQ-4. Means with dissimilar lowercase letters in the same sort of bar indicate significance (P < 0.05), the same as below.