Abstract
Background: The dairy industry heavily relies on fermentation processes driven in high proportion by Lactococcus lactis. The fermentation process can be perturbed or even stopped by bacteriophage activity, leading to complete loss of fermentation batch or decreased quality product. The monitoring of the phage diversity and dynamics in the process allows implementing protective measures (e.g., starter rotation) to maintain unperturbed production. Methods: Universal primers were used to amplify sequences of the 936, c2, and P335 Lactococcus phage types. The amplicons were sequenced with the Sanger method and obtained degenerate sequences were analyzed using a simple bioinformatic pipeline in the R environment. Results: The most prevalent phage type is 936, followed by P335, whereas the c2 type is less frequent. Conclusions: Curd cheeses prepared on non-pasteurized milk based on native milk microbiota had a higher diversity of phages distinct from those found in dairy plants. Sanger sequencing of heterogenous amplicons generated on metagenome DNA can be used to assess low-complexity microbiota diversity.
Highlights
Published: 24 September 2021The dairy industry heavily relies on fermentation processes driven in high proportion by Lactococcus lactis
Among bacteriophages infecting L. lactis [4], those belonging to species c2, 936, or P335 are most commonly encountered in dairy plants [5,6]
The curd cheese samples derived from Polish dairy facilities (n = 25) and spontaneous milk fermentations from in-house cheese production (n = 14) from different locations were tested for the presence of Lactococcus phages with multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) [13]
Summary
Published: 24 September 2021The dairy industry heavily relies on fermentation processes driven in high proportion by Lactococcus lactis. The fermentation process can be perturbed or even stopped by bacteriophage activity leading to huge economic losses [1,2,3]. Most in-house dairy plants’ laboratories use traditional, indirect methods for phage detection in their routine analyses. These methods are based on activity tests (assessment of a decrease in acid production or a reduction of an indicator compound). Apart from detection methods, analysis of diversity and dynamics of lactococcal bacteriophages is crucial for preventing the spread of infections in dairy environments. The fermentation process can be perturbed or even stopped by bacteriophage activity, leading to complete loss of fermentation batch or decreased quality product.
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