Amplicon Sequencing of the slpH Locus Permits Culture-Independent Strain Typing of Lactobacillus helveticus in Dairy Products
Abstract
The advent of massive parallel sequencing technologies has opened up possibilities for the study of the bacterial diversity of ecosystems without the need for enrichment or single strain isolation. By exploiting 78 genome data-sets from Lactobacillus helveticus strains, we found that the slpH locus that encodes a putative surface layer protein displays sufficient genetic heterogeneity to be a suitable target for strain typing. Based on high-throughput slpH gene sequencing and the detection of single-base DNA sequence variations, we established a culture-independent method to assess the biodiversity of the L. helveticus strains present in fermented dairy food. When we applied the method to study the L. helveticus strain composition in 15 natural whey cultures (NWCs) that were collected at different Gruyère, a protected designation of origin (PDO) production facilities, we detected a total of 10 sequence types (STs). In addition, we monitored the development of a three-strain mix in raclette cheese for 17 weeks. Show more
Permanent link
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000191005Publication status
publishedExternal links
Journal / series
Frontiers in MicrobiologyVolume
Pages / Article No.
Publisher
Frontiers MediaSubject
strain typing; semiconductor sequencing; Lactobacillus helveticus; natural whey culture; population compositionOrganisational unit
03626 - Lacroix, Christophe (emeritus) / Lacroix, Christophe (emeritus)
More
Show all metadata