Characterization of the bacterial biodiversity in Pico cheese (an artisanal Azorean food)

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2015

Authors

Cristina Riquelme (Author) Other; Sandra Câmara (Author) Other; Maria de Lurdes N. Enes Dapkevicius (Author) Other; Pablo Vinuesa (Author) Other; Célia Costa Gomes da Silva (Author) Other; F. Xavier Malcata (Author) FEUP; Oldemiro A. Rego (Author) Other

Journal

Title: International Journal of Food Microbiology

Vol. 192 No. 1

Pages: 86-94

ISSN: 0168-1605

Publisher: Elsevier

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge

ISI Web of Science

Scopus

Scientific classification

FOS: Engineering and technology

Other information

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2014.09.031

Subject: Bacterial diversity; Artisanal cheese; Next-generation sequencing

Abstract (EN): This work presents the first study on the bacterial communities in Pico cheese, a traditional cheese of the Azores (Portugal), made from raw cow's milk. Pyrosequencing of tagged amplicons of the V3¿V4 regions of the 16S rDNA and Operational Taxonomic Unit-based (OTU-based) analysis were applied to obtain an overall idea of the microbiota in Pico cheese and to elucidate possible differences between cheese-makers (A, B and C) and maturation times. Pyrosequencing revealed a high bacterial diversity in Pico cheese. Four phyla (Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria and Bacteroidetes) and 54 genera were identified. The predominant genus was Lactococcus (77% of the sequences). Sequences belonging to major cheese-borne pathogens were not found. Staphylococcus accounted for 0.5% of the sequences. Significant differences in bacterial community composition were observed between cheese-maker B and the other two units that participated in the study. However, OTU analysis identified a set of taxa (Lactococcus, Streptococcus, Acinetobacter, Enterococcus, Lactobacillus, Staphylococcus, Rothia, Pantoea and unclassified genera belonging to the Enterobacteriaceae family) that would represent the core components of artisanal Pico cheese microbiota. A diverse bacterial community was present at early maturation, with an increase in the number of phylotypes up to 2 weeks, followed by a decrease at the end of ripening. The most remarkable trend in abundance patterns throughout ripening was an increase in the number of sequences belonging to the Lactobacillus genus, with a concomitant decrease in Acinetobacter, and Stenotrophomonas. Microbial rank abundance curves showed that Pico cheese's bacterial communities are characterized by a few dominant taxa and many low-abundance, highly diverse taxa that integrate the so-called ¿rare biosphere¿.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 9