Molecular characterization of Lactobacillus species isolated from naturally fermented sausages produced in Greece, Hungary and Italy

Phenotypic characterization and species-specific PCR of promising starter culture strains of Lactobacillus plantarum isolated from naturally fermented sausages

“…Among lactobacilli, Lactobacillus curvatus, L. sakei and L. plantarum are the species most widely isolated from naturally fermented meat products (1)(2)(3)9,17,19,25). However, meat fermentation by the natural lactic acid microbiota can sometimes fail, resulting in products of poor quality; for this reason, the addition of starter cultures has been recommended and has become common in the manufacture of several types of fermented sausages.…”

Comparative Genomics Reveals Biomarkers to Identify Lactobacillus Species

“…Molecular tools used for distinguishing Lactobacillus species involve: Random amplified polymorphic DNA, repetitive element PCR, restriction fragment length polymorphism, pulse-field gel electrophoresis, denaturing/temperature gradient gel electrophoresis [22][23][24][25][26]. These techniques have helped to reclassify certain species such as L. brevis-L. hilgardii [22].…”

Food Microbiota Diversity

“…Meat fermentation and fermented sausage manufacturing are ancient processes in Europe, and typical preparations based on fermentations driven by indigenous microflora are still produced by local meat factories or artisanal producers without the use of starter cultures (Rantsiou et al, 2005a;Urso et al, 2006). LAB (Lactic Acid Bacteria) and CNC (Coagulase Negative Cocci) are the two main groups of bacteria with technological value determining the several biochemical and physical reactions taking place during the fermentation and ripening of sausages .…”

“…Molecular methods are nowadays increasingly employed to clarify the taxonomy of microbiota from sausages. The largest numbe r o f w o r k s i s b a s e d o n R A P D ( R a n d o m Amplified Polymorphic DNA), (Rebecchi et al, 1998;Rantsiou et al, 2005a), 16S rDNA sequencing (Rantsiou et al, 2005a), PCR-DGGE (Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis) analysis (Cocolin et al, 2001a;Cocolin et al, 2001b;Comi et al, 2005;Urso et al, 2006), and REA-PFGE (Restriction Endonucleases Analysis -Pulsed Field Gel Electrophoresis) analysis (Psoni et al, 2006). The above DNA-based methodologies, with the exception of REA-PFGE, are easy, fast, and provide an accurate identification at species level, but are not as informative when it comes to characterisation of the bacterial population at strain level.…”

“…The most frequently isolated LAB from fermented sausages are Lactobacillus sakei, L. curvatus, and L. plantarum, while among the CNC it is Staphylococcus xylosus that is most usually found (Cocolin et al, 2001a;Rossi et al, 2001;Aymerich et al, 2003;Cocolin et al, 2004;Rantsiou et al, 2005b). Concerning the typology of sausages that have been analysed, several reports only consider the microbiota isolated from "Salame friulano" (Cocolin et al, 2001a;Cocolin et al, 2001b;Comi et al, 2005;Rantsiou et al, 2005a;Rantsiou et al, 2005b;Urso et al, 2006). In the present study we have used fluorescent AFLP to analyse the genetic variability of cultured bacteria isolated from populations present in traditional North Italian fermented 'salami' in order to: (i) define the biodiversity of cultured bacteria involved in traditional meat fermentation of high quality products produced without using starter cultures; (ii) define the utility of AFLP in characterising, at strain level, the indigenous sausage microflora; (iii) collect the different isolates and identify strain specific electropherograms usable as markers for traceability of the product.…”