Culture-independent methods metabolic activity in microbial communities

4 Culture-independent methods metabolic activity in microbial communities 

As reported in Section 7.3.1, PCR-DGGE has been widely used in food microbiology, and the diversity and dynamics of microbial populations during the manufacturing and ripening of different products have been profiled by means of DNA-based experiments. Reverse transcription (RT)-PCR-DGGE has also been performed, but to a lesser extent, to obtain a picture of the species that are metabolically active at particular sampling instants. 

Recently, Dolci et al. (2013) investigated Fontina PDO cheese surface nuCTobiota complexity at both DNA and RNA levels. A detailed picture of the microbiota was observed when rRNA was targeted, and bacterial species that were not highlighted by means of the DNA analysis were detected. Thus, these authors suggest that RT-PCR-DGGE should be considered a better tool to profile microbial populations, and that the rRNA molecule is a worthwhile target for a better and more complete understanding of the microbial communities in food ecosystems. 

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