Genomics and Functional Role of Actinomycetes on Smear Ripened Cheeses

Monnet, C; Bora, N; Irlinger, F; Ward, AC

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-10464-5_2

Genomics and Functional Role of Actinomycetes on Smear Ripened Cheeses

Lookup NU author(s): Nagamani Bora, Emeritus Professor Alan Ward

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Abstract

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015. Cheese organisms are derived from the dairy environment, from humans and from the environment. Milk and its evolution provide the selective environment for growth of cheese organisms but salt is the major additional selective pressure imposed upon the smear cheese surface. Perhaps the evolutionary history of the actinobacterial phylogenetic clade as Terrabacter and selection for resistance to desiccation on aerobic surfaces has provided species able to exploit these environments. But human selection over the history of cheese-making may have selected cheese-microorganism consortia adapted to produce desirable cheese properties, including the ability to outgrow contaminating microorganisms on the cheese-surface and modify the organoleptic properties. The properties of some of the characteristic cheese-related organisms relevant to cheese such as iron availability, catabolism, bacteriocins, osmotolerance and proteolysis of casein are described and compared to related species from other environmental habitats from a genomics perspective.