The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of target tRNA(Ala)-23S ribosomal DNA for identification of lactic acid bacteria strains associated with dairy ecosystem. For this purpose tRNA(Ala)-23S ribosomal DNA Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (tRNA(Ala)-23S rDNA-RFLP) was compared with two widely used DNA fingerprinting methods - P1 Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD), (GTG)5 repetitive extragenic palindromic PCR (rep-PCR) - for their ability to identify different species on a set of 10 type and 34 reference strains. Moreover, 75 unknown isolates collected during different stages of Grana Padano cheese production and ripening were identified using tRNA(Ala)-23S rDNA-RFLP and compared to the RFLP profiles of the strains in the reference database. This study demonstrated that the target tRNA(Ala)-23S rDNA has high potential in bacterial identification and tRNA(Ala)-23S rDNA-RFLP is a promising method for reliable species-level identification of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) in dairy products.
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