Bifidobacterium longum AO44 genome sequencing. Bifidobacterium longum strain:AO44

The gut microbiota is now well known to affect the host's immune system. One way of bacterial communication with host cells is via the secretion of vesicles, small membrane structures, containing various cargo. While Gram-negative bacterial vesicles were studied in the past 5 decades, Gram-positive vesicles were just recently discovered. Moreover, the research of vesicles secreted by Gram-positive gut bacteria, their mechanisms of interaction with the host and their immune-modulatory effects are still in their infancy. Here we characterized the size, protein content and immune-modulatory effects of extracellular vesicles secreted by a newly sequenced Gram-positive human gut symbiont strain - Bifidobacterium longum AO44