The cheese microbiota is characterized by the presence of a large variety of bacteria, yeasts, and molds, and many factors influence their growth and survival. The microbial community in cheese at various stages of ripening has been extensively studied by microbiological techniques based on the cultivation of the microorganisms on media and phenotypic or genotypic characterization of a fraction of the community (culture-dependent methods). Culture-independent methods based on DNA or RNA extraction offer the possibility of profiling uncultivable members of the microbial community as well as distinguishing those that are metabolically active. In this review, the status of research on available molecular tools used to characterize the microbiota in the cheese matrix are described and discussed in order to assess the metabolic functionality of the microbial community, its diversity, as well as the identification of species and their comparative quantification. Combining culture-dependent and culture-independent approaches can contribute to improving the strain selection process by understanding the basis of technological performance. Defined starter and adjunct cultures will improve and standardize cheese quality and safety. Future perspectives include the application of methods such as high-throughput quantitative reverse transcription PCR and pyrosequencing to quantify the contribution of the microbial community to cheese ripening.

摘要干酪微生物区域中存在多种细菌、酵母和霉菌,多种因素影响着上述微生物的生长和存活。采用基于微生物在培养基中培养以及群体中部分微生物的表型或遗传型特征的微生物研究技术,已经对干酪成熟的不同阶段中微生物群体,进行了深入研究。基于DNA或RNA提取的非培养方法提供了研究微生物群体中非培养物以及区分那些代谢活跃的微生物的可能。本文中描述和讨论了当前可用于研究干酪中微生物区系的分子工具的研究现状,旨在评价微生物群体的代谢功能性、多样性以及种属的鉴定、相应的定量方法。基于技术特性的理解,培养和非培养研究方法的结合能够改善菌株的选择过程。明确发酵剂和附属发酵剂将改善和标准化干酪的质量和安全性。同时对应用高通量的定量反转录PCR、焦磷酸测序等方法量化微生物群体对干酪成熟的贡献进行了展望。