Decarboxylase activity of the non-starter lactic acid bacterium Loigolactobacillus rennini gives crack defects in Gouda cheese through the production of γ-aminobutyric acid

Hannes Decadt, Louise Vermote, Cristian Díaz-Muñoz, Stefan Weckx, Luc De Vuyst

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)
23 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Ten Gouda cheese wheels with an age of 31 weeks from six different batch
productions were affected by a crack defect and displayed an unpleasant off-flavor.To unravel the causes of these defects, the concentrations of free amino acids, other organic acids, volatile organic compounds, and biogenic amines were quantified in zones around the cracks and in zones without cracks, and compared with those of similar Gouda cheeses without crack defect. The Gouda cheeses with cracks had a significantly different metabolome. The production of the non-proteinogenic amino acid γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) could be unraveled as the key mechanism leading to crack formation, although the production of the biogenic amines cadaverine and putrescine contributed as well. High-throughput amplicon sequencing of the full-length 16S rRNA gene based on whole-community DNA revealed the presence of Loigolactobacillus rennini and Tetragenococcus halophilus as most abundant non-starter lactic acid
bacteria in the zones with cracks. Shotgun metagenomic sequencing allowed to obtain a metagenome-assembled genome of both Loil. rennini and T. halophilus. However, only Loil. rennini contained genes necessary for the production of GABA, cadaverine, and putrescine. Metagenetics further revealed the brine and the rennet used during cheese manufacturing as the most plausible inoculation sources of both Loil. rennini and T. halophilus.
Original languageEnglish
Article numbere-01655-23
Number of pages25
JournalApplied and Environmental Microbiology
Volume90
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 17 Jan 2024

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Research Council of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (SRP7 and IOF3017 projects) and Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship (VLAIO).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Decadt et al.

Keywords

  • cheese with cracks
  • decarboxylation
  • metagenome-assembled genomes
  • brine
  • rennet
  • Loigolactobacillus rennini
  • Tetragenococcus halophilus
  • lactic acid bacteria
  • Gouda

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Decarboxylase activity of the non-starter lactic acid bacterium Loigolactobacillus rennini gives crack defects in Gouda cheese through the production of γ-aminobutyric acid'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this