Bacterial biodiversity of traditional Zabady fermented milk

The aim of this work was to identify the bacterial biodiversity of traditional Zabady fermented milk using PCR-temporal temperature gel electrophoresis (PCR-TTGE) and PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE). Most of the identified bacterial species in Zabady samples belonged to lactic acid bacteria (LAB), e.g., Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactococcus garvieae, Lactococcus raffinolactis, Lactococcus lactis, Leuconostoc citreum, Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Lactobacillus johnsonii. Using the culture-dependent and independent methods, the streptococcal and lactococcal groups appeared to be the major bacterial species in Zabady fermented milk, whereas the lactobacilli were the minor ones. The main dominant species was St. thermophilus followed by Lc. garvieae. Other molecular tools, e.g., species-specific PCR assay and cloning and sequencing strategy were used to confirm the TTGE and DGGE results. Lc. garvieae, Lc. raffinolactis, Ln. citreum, and Lb. johnsonii were identified for the first time in this type of Egyptian fermented milk. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.