Culture-dependent and Culture-independent Methods

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are commonly found in traditional fermented milks as natural flora. They play a great significant role in these products. During the last decades, several investigators have isolated and identified different LAB species from dairy products . All these studies were based on cultivation and phenotypic identification methods (culture-dependent methods). These methods, which rely on bacterial growth in selective media, may fail to identify bacteria that cannot multiply outside the environment. Indeed, cultivation-dependent approaches may bias our view of microbial diversity. In recent years, a great number of different molecular techniques have been developed for the identification of LAB. This book, therefor , a combination of culture-dependent methods [Apparatus and Procedure Identification system (API), Sodium-Dodecyl Sulfate Polyacrylamide gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE)] and culture-independent methods (Temporal Temperature Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (TTGE)were used to determine the lactic acid bacteria present in traditional Kariesh cheese and Laban Rayeb.