Optimising detection of acidification kinetics diversity in Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis using SDS‐PAGE protein fingerprinting as screening method

Cell‐free extracts from 157 Lactococcus lactis strains isolated from Artisan cheese were screened by protein fingerprinting previous to their technological characterisation. The strains were classified according to their electrophoretic patterns into five groups. A set of strains representing the different clusters were selected to study their acidifying activity in milk. Time and rate feature points, as well as the shape of the acidification curves, resulted in six different fermentation kinetics, mostly consistent with the electrophoretic groups. Thus, selection of native strains as starter cultures based on their acidifying activity could be optimised by protein fingerprinting.