AUTHOR=Levante Alessia , Bertani Gaia , Marrella Martina , Mucchetti Germano , Bernini Valentina , Lazzi Camilla , Neviani Erasmo 

TITLE=The microbiota of Mozzarella di Bufala Campana PDO cheese: a study across the manufacturing process

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=14

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1196879

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2023.1196879

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Introduction</title><p>Mozzarella di Bufala Campana PDO cheese (MBC) is a globally esteemed Italian cheese. The traditional cheesemaking process of MBC relies on natural whey starter culture, water buffalo's milk, and the local agroecosystem.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>In this study, the microbial ecology of intermediate samples of MBC production, coming from two dairies with slightly different cheesemaking technology (dairy M large producer, and dairy C medium-small), was investigated using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. This research aimed to provide insights into the dynamics of microbial consortia involved in various cheesemaking steps.</p></sec><sec><title>Results and discussion</title><p>All samples, except for raw buffalo milk, exhibited a core microbiome predominantly composed of <italic>Streptococcus</italic> spp. and <italic>Lactobacillus</italic> spp., albeit with different ratios between the two genera across the two MBC producers. Notably, the microbiota of the brine from both dairies, analyzed using 16S amplicon sequencing for the first time, was dominated by the <italic>Lactobacillus</italic> and <italic>Streptococcus</italic> genera, while only dairy C showed the presence of minor genera such as <italic>Pediococcus</italic> and <italic>Lentilactobacillus</italic>. Intriguingly, the final mozzarella samples from both producers displayed an inversion in the dominance of <italic>Lactobacillus</italic> spp. over <italic>Streptococcus</italic> spp. in the microbiota compared to curd samples, possibly attributable to the alleviation of thermal stress following the curd stretching step. In conclusion, the different samples from the two production facilities did not exhibit significant differences in terms of the species involved in MBC cheesemaking. This finding confirms that the key role in the MBC cheesemaking process lies with a small-sized microbiome primarily composed of <italic>Streptococcus</italic> and <italic>Lactobacillus</italic> spp.</p></sec>