This strategy greatly simplified the identification of bands in the TTGE fingerprints of complex consortia corresponding to intraspecies variability. Consortium M displayed slightly less diversity than F with 10 species detected at the dominant level by culture independent analysis. A total of buy Crenigacestat 20 species were detected in consortia F and M, including eight coryneform bacteria. C. variabile, C. casei, B. linens and Mc. gubbeenense are common ripening microorganisms of smear

cheeses detected on soft cheeses [5, 9] and semi-hard cheeses [2, 8, 23]. Br. tyrofermentans was first isolated from Gruyère cheese [25] and was recently shown to colonize the surface of soft cheeses [5, 9]. To our knowledge, this is the first time that Br. paraconglomeratum has been detected in cheese although this species has been previously isolated from milk [26]. Agrococcus casei was first isolated from Gubbeen, an Irish semi-hard cheese [2]. Three Staphylococcus species were isolated in addition to coryneforms. St. equorum is common on smear cheeses [6, 8, 27–29] while St. vitulinus was only isolated by Irlinger et al. Ralimetinib supplier [27] from French cheeses. St. epidermidis, a human skin inhabitant, was detected on various Irish semi-hard cheeses [2, 8]. Two Gram-positive marine lactic acid

bacteria (LAB) and an uncultured bacterium from marine sediment were also part of the dominant flora. M. psychrotolerans has been detected in the smear of soft cheeses from Germany and France [5, 9]. Alkalibacterium sp. was found to be present Etomidate in many European cheeses including Tilsiter, a semi-hard smear cheese [10]. We also identified potentially undesirable species of enterococci in the subdominant flora of consortium F. Enterococci have a controversial status in the dairy industry. They are considered naturally occurring ripening organisms for artisan Mediterranean cheese [30], but also appear as emerging pathogens due to the virulence factors they tend to harbor [31]. To our knowledge, this study is the first

report of the presence of Facklamia sp. in cheese. F. tabacinasalis was first isolated from powdered tobacco by Collins et al. [32] and has recently been detected in raw milk by Delbès et al. [33] in a French farm producing Saint-Nectaire cheese and by Hantsis-Zacharov and Halpern [34] in a farm from northern Israel equipped with modern automated milking facilities. The presence of F. tabacinasalis on the surface of smear cheese may constitute a A-1210477 cell line health hazard, as this species was shown to be α-haemolytic on horse blood [32]. Moreover, from six Facklamia species described to date, four were isolated from human clinical specimen [35]. We observed highly similar microbial community structures of consortia F and M, with 9 species being common to both consortia at dominant level, despite different ripening procedures. High interbatch diversity was described by Rea et al.