The extraordinary potential of metagenomic tools for food microbiology: an example with bacterial microbiota of raw and pasteurized milk cheeses

Among the culture-independent techniques, ultra-sequencing has contributed to place metagenomic analysis as the best alternative to study complex microbiota. During the last three years, metagenomic studies were used essentially for environmental samples but it could be used also to analyse bacterial populations of food samples. This work describes the application of this technique to study the bacterial population of different types of soft cheeses. Among these, three of them are a typical Belgian soft cheese with washed rind (two with raw milk and the third with pasteurized milk). The fourth is a French creamy soft cheese made with raw milk. Classical microbiological and 16S rDNA metagenomic analysis were carried out in the core and on the rind of the four cheeses, giving a total of 8 samples. In total, 48 genus and 163 species were identified for all samples. As expected Lactoccocus lactis and/or cremoris are the most representative species in the core of the four cheeses. On the rind of cheeses, the predominant bacterial species are Psychrobacter glacinola, Staphylococcus equorum, Corynebacterium casei and Marinilactibacillus psychrotolerans. Brevibacterium spp and Psychroflexus spp are important for the rind of washed rind cheeses. All these species are present in different proportions following the origin and the cheese making process and they are well known for their organoleptic properties on the rind of cheese. The two Belgian soft cheese made with raw milk are composed of many more different bacterial species. While the cheese made from pasteurized milk contains less species mainly composed by Lactococcus lactis (97,6%) in the core. An unexpected result is the low diversity of the a French creamy soft cheese made with raw milk with only two predominent species : Lactoccocus cremoris and Leuconostoc citreum are present in the core (94,9% and 4,9% , respectively) and on the rind (93,8% and 5% , respectively). Compared with the other cheeses made with raw milk, this result is surprising. The bacterial cheese microbiota plays a central role in cheese-making. The subtleties of cheese character, as well as their shelf-life, are largely determined by the evolution of their microbiota.