Caracterização microbiológica do queijo minas artesanal da canastra como ferramenta para definição da microbiota terroir

Abstract

Producers of Minas Artisanal Cheese from the Canastra Region are interested in understanding the microbiota of this product. Such knowledge can even help to elaborate legislation and to obtain the Geographical Indication seal. Amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene (bacteria) and ITS region (fungi) were used in this study to characterize the microbiota present in Minas artisanal cheese from the Canastra region due to the influence that environmental factors and production sites have on the sensory characteristics of this product. Results of bacterial analyzes revealed that the phylum Firmicutes was predominant, represented by the genera Streptococcus, Lactococcus, Lactobacillus, and Leuconostoc. This fact shows that lactic acid bacteria prevailed in bacterial populations in all samples. When it comes to the fungal analyzes, most of the detected fungi belonged to the phylum Ascomycota, represented by the genera Dipodascus, Ditutina, Deboryomyces, and Trichosporon. The most abundant species were Geotrichum candidum, Candida catenulata, and Debaryomyces prosopidis. Diversity analyzes indicated a notable variation in the microbiota of Minas artisanal cheese from Canastra among farms, which demonstrates an existing difference between the practices used by the cheesemakers and reinforces that the factors previously mentioned really affect the products.