Natural microflora of traditional cheeses

Abstract

Although protection of the world's biodiversity is currently a topic of particular concern, little attention has been given to the preservation of microorganisms, particulary lactic acid bacteria from artisanal and how this is related to the survival of traditional, autochthonous products. The use of autochthonous cultures of lactic acid bacteria in the elaboration of artisanal cheeses would preserve the biodiversity of bacterial genera and species associated with specific products. From this point of view, the great versatility and significant capacity of typical, wild strains of lactic acid bacteria to transform substrates through particular metabolic pathways emphasize the importance of these strains as they are important biological and genetic resources which had the great contribution in development of unique sensory characteristics of these products.

Iako zaštita biodiverziteta živog sveta danas predstavlja temu od posebnog interesa, veoma malo pažnje se poklanja očuvanju mikroorganizama, pre svega bakterija mlečne kiseline poreklom iz zanatski proizvedenih fermentisanih proizvoda od mleka. Primena autohtonih kultura bakterija mlečne kiseline u proizvodnji tradicionalnih sireva sačuvaće biodiverzitet bakterijskih vrsta povezanih sa ovim specifičnim proizvodima. Sa ovog aspekta, raznolikost i značajni kapacitet sojeva nestarterskih bakterija mlečne kiseline u transformaciji supstrata kroz specifične metaboličke puteve naglašava značaj ovih sojeva zbog toga što predstavljaju značajne biološke i genetske izvore sa značajnim učešćem u razvoju jedinstvenih senzornih karakteristika autohtonih sireva.