Massive sequencing of artisan cheeses from raw sheep's milk

Abstract

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are used in the food industry to confer aromatic characteristicsand their antibacterial capacity. In this study the native flora of LAB that participates in thetraditional fermentation of semi-hard cheeses made with raw sheep?s milk from the regionof Andalusia, Spain was analyzed. Three samples of four different commercial cheeses weretaken. Massive sequencing was carried out to identify the lactic and accompanying flora.Predominant lactic flora was Lactococcus lactis, Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillusparacasei and Lactococcus raffinolactis, and to a lesser extent other species of the generaLactobacillus, Streptococcus, Pediococcus and Leuconestoc. The accompanying florawas composed of species of the genera Mycoplasma, Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter,Chryseobacterium, Mannheimia, Trueperella, Enterococcus, Vibrio, Serratia, Macrococcus,Staphylococcus, Massilia, Flavobacterium, Yersinia, Gallaecimonas, Hafnia, Leclercia,Obesumbacterium, Morganella and Kluyvera. These results show that modern moleculartechniques are very good tools to identify natural LABs of artisanal dairy products.The characterization of the native flora of the artisanal cheese allows us to evaluate themicrobiological diversity of the natural population of LAB and the symbiosis with anothertype of flora.