Genome Sequencing of Bifidobacterium sp. JCM7042

Recent studies have revealed that C16 monounsaturated fatty acids such as 9-cis-C16:1 (palmitoleic acid) and 6-cis-C16:1 (sapienic acid) exhibit specific antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus. Bifidobacteria were found to be capable of producing 7-cis-C16:1, especially strain JCM7042. Strain JCM7042 was previously registered as identical to B. adolescentis ATCC15704. Our laboratory performed RNA-seq to identify the 7-cis-C16:1 synthesis gene. As a result, the obtained RNA sequence was found to be very different from that of B. adolescentis. This necessitated the identification of the exact species of strain JCM7042.