Ercolini Danilo

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Ercolini
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Danilo
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  • Article
    Metatranscriptomics reveals temperature-driven functional changes in microbiome impacting cheese maturation rate
    (Nature Publishing Group, 2016-02-25) De Filippis, Francesca ; Genovese, Alessandro ; Ferranti, Pasquale ; Gilbert, Jack A. ; Ercolini, Danilo
    Traditional cheeses harbour complex microbial consortia that play an important role in shaping typical sensorial properties. However, the microbial metabolism is considered difficult to control. Microbial community succession and the related gene expression were analysed during ripening of a traditional Italian cheese, identifying parameters that could be modified to accelerate ripening. Afterwards, we modulated ripening conditions and observed consistent changes in microbial community structure and function. We provide concrete evidence of the essential contribution of non-starter lactic acid bacteria in ripening-related activities. An increase in the ripening temperature promoted the expression of genes related to proteolysis, lipolysis and amino acid/lipid catabolism and significantly increases the cheese maturation rate. Moreover, temperature-promoted microbial metabolisms were consistent with the metabolomic profiles of proteins and volatile organic compounds in the cheese. The results clearly indicate how processing-driven microbiome responses can be modulated in order to optimize production efficiency and product quality.
  • Article
    A few Pseudomonas oligotypes dominate in the meat and dairy processing environment
    (Frontiers Media, 2017-03-02) Stellato, Giuseppina ; Utter, Daniel R. ; Voorhis, Andy ; De Angelis, Maria ; Eren, A. Murat ; Ercolini, Danilo
    The occurrence of bacteria in the food processing environments plays a key role in food contamination and development of spoilage. Species of the genus Pseudomonas are recognized as major food spoilers and the capability to actually determine spoilage can be species- as well as strain-dependent. In order to improve the taxonomic resolution of 16S rRNA gene amplicons, in this study we used oligotyping to investigate the diversity of Pseudomonas populations in meat and dairy processing environments. Sequences of the V1–V3 regions from previous studies were used, including environmental swabs and food samples from both meat and dairy processing plants. We showed that the most frequently found oligotypes belonged to Pseudomonas fragi and P. fluorescens, that the most abundant oligotypes co-occurred, and were shared between the meat and dairy datasets. All the oligotypes occurring in foods were also identified in the environmental samples of the corresponding plants, highlighting the important role of the environment as a source of strains for food contamination. Oligotypes of the same species showed different levels depending on food processing and type of sample, suggesting that different strains of the same species can have different adaptation efficiency, leading to resilient bacterial associations.