16S Bacterial Metagenomic Analysis of Herby Cheese (Otlu Peynir) Microbiota

Abstract

Cheese microbiota may contain various bacterial species due to the use of different types of milk, rennet, and herbs. In this study, the distribution of the dominant bacteria present in the microbiota of herby cheese samples (n = 13) were examined by the next generation sequencing (NGS) technique. DNA was extracted both directly from cheese samples and after pre-enrichment. The metagenomic analysis of the NGS results revealed that Firmicutes were dominant both in DNA directly extracted from herby cheese (KOP), and pre-enriched samples (OP), at the phylum level. At the genus level, Lactobacillus, Lactococcus, and Streptococcus were dominant in the KOP samples, whereas in the OP samples, Enterococcus, Streptococcus, and Bacillus were determined as the dominant bacterial genera. Although Lactococcus raffinolactis and Streptococcus salivarius were dominant in the KOP samples, Enterococcus faecalis and S. salivarius were dominant in the OP samples. The Shannon species diversity index and principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) were used to determine the distribution in KOP and OP samples at the genus level. The PCoA of KOP-10, KOP-11, KOP-2, and KOP-7, KOP-3, and KOP-6 samples showed the wide distribution, whereas KOP-5, KOP-8, KOP-9, and KOP-14 herby cheese samples were closely related. The OP samples, especially OP-7 and OP-14, showed wide distribution in comparison to other OP samples. Finally, the dominant bacterial communities were identified by DNA-based metagenomic analysis, and this is the first report to elucidate the microbiota of herby cheese produced in Turkey using the NGS technique.