Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris is considered to be one of the most important target microorganisms in quality control of heat-processed acidic foods. This species can cause spoilage by forming spores with very high heat resistance; however, no gas production or visible changes occur in the contaminated product during storage. Thus, the differentiation of A. acidoterrestris from other Alicyclobacillus species is of great importance. Τhe present study aims to find a rapid method for the identification of A. acidoterrestris. To achieve this, 78 Alicyclobacillus isolates were subjected to PCR-RFLP (restriction fragment length polymorphism). Specifically, PCR products of amplified V1-V3 region of the 16S rRNA gene were digested with restriction endonuclease HhaI. According to the obtained results, all A. acidoterrestris isolates showed similar restriction fragments of the 16S rRNA gene and different from A. acidocaldarius and A. hesperidum. In conclusion, a single enzyme PCR-RFLP assay was developed and showed rapid, inexpensive and direct identification of Alicyclobacillus isolates. The application of this method will be useful to identify this contaminant in fruit juices.
Keywords: A. acidoterrestris; Alicyclobacillus; New assay; RFLP; Species differentiation.