Effects of dietary yogurt consumption on the gastrointestinal (GI) microbial communities of healthy human subjects

The aim of this study was to determine the microbial community composition of healthy human test subjects consuming commercially available yogurt for 42 consecutive days. Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism, Sanger sequencing, and next generation sequencing were used in to characterize changes in microbial community structure, diversity, and phylogenetics of eubacteria, more specifically Lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria. We hypothesized that introducing a yogurt diet to human test subjects would: i) alter microbial community structure, ii) increase GI microbial diversity and iii) increase the abundance of probiotic bacteria.