Milk and cheese microbiome for safety and quality of dairy products

The aim of this project is to develop and increase knowledge of key factors influencing the presence of clostridial spores in milk and factors affecting, directly or indirectly, technological characteristics and fermentation of milk, make it more or less susceptible to the development of defects (swelling). Aim of the project is to characterize by 1D/2D-gel electrophoresis and next-generation sequencing coupled to shotgun mass spectrometry the global microbiota isolated from ‘Grana Padano’ cheese. In particular the target is to identify the sub-proteome of Clostridium tyrobutyricum present in cheese and to investigate differences in proteins involved in the metabolic pathway of butyric acid in different stages of ripening and milk treatment (e.g. lysozyme treatment).