Microbial profile of Semuda cheese and genotypic, phenotypic and technological characterization of indigenous lactic acid bacteria.

Semuda is a cheese produced in a restricted Italian alpine area (north of Como lake). The aim of the research was to study the characteristics of the indigenous lactic acid bacteria (LAB) population. A total of 78 LAB strains were isolated from ripened cheese and identified using species-specific primers and 16SrRNA gene sequencing. Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis was used to evaluate the genotypic diversity, while technological properties of major interest for cheese-making (acidification and caseinolytic activity) were also evaluated. The predominant species, were Enterococcus faecalis, Lactobacillus paracasei subsp. paracasei and Lb. plantarum. Three bacteriocin producers were found belonging to Eenterococcus spp. and enterocin A and P genes were detected.