Abstract

Streptococcus thermophilus isolates from traditional butter ‘Smen’, a fermented product from cow’s and ewe’s milk in arid area was subjected to taxonomical investigations. The identification procedure included phenotypic approaches, molecular characterization by using genus polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplifications for sodA gene encoding the manganese-dependant superoxide dismutase A, and species-specific primers from gene encoding glucose kinase(glcK), gene encoding DNA polymerase III (dnaE) and gene encoding threonyl-tRNA synthetase (thrS) housekeeping genes in order to distinguish among reference, and wild strains of S. thermophilus and for their differentiation from Enterococcus spp. A total of 12 strains were tested by DNA identification analysis and these indigenous isolates were unambiguously characterised by their housekeeping gene profiles. Finally, four genotypes were recognised. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the isolation and molecular characterization of S. thermophilus strains from fermented milk transformed into home-production butter provided from Southern West Algeria. These results are of particular interest as they favour the selection of future cultures starters as S. thermophilus from traditional dairy products. It is, therefore, of great importance to preserve the genetic pool of the wild strains.

Key words: Streptococcus thermophilus, traditional butter, PCR, Enterococcus, DNA, species-specific primer.

Abbreviation

 PCR, Polymerase chain reaction; glcK, gene encoding glucose kinase; dnaE, gene encoding DNA polymerase III; thrS, gene encoding threonyl-tRNA synthetase.