Bacteriocin‑Producing Enterococci Modulate Cheese Microbial Diversity Teso Pérez, Claudia López‑Gazcón, Areli Peralta Sánchez, Juan Manuel Martínez Bueno, Manuel Valdivia Martínez, Dolores Eva Farez Vidal, María Esther Martín Platero, Antonio Manuel Enterococcus Cheese microbiota Microbial interactions Microbial diversity Bacteriocins Funding for open access publishing: Universidad de Granada/CBUA. This research was funded by the Junta de Andalucía (Programa Operativo FEDER Andalucía 2014–2020), grant number A-BIO-083-UGR18 and PAIDI Program Group BIO 309 (MEF-V). C.T.-P. was funded by the Plan Estatal de Garantía Juvenil (Fondo Social Europeo, Gobierno de España, Ref. PEJ2018-003019-A. Cheese production involves various lactic acid bacteria (LAB) that break down lactose, milk proteins, and fats, producing key nutrients and influencing the cheese’s flavor. They form communities that play a crucial role in determining the cheese’s organoleptic properties. The composition of cheeses’ microbial communities is shaped by physicochemical factors (e.g., tem- perature, pH, and salinity) and biological factors (i.e. microbial interactions). While starter cultures are introduced to control these communities, non-starter LAB represent a significant portion of the final microbial assemblage, but their interactions remain unclear. LAB often produce bacteriocins, antimicrobial peptides that antagonize other bacteria, but their role within LAB communities is not fully understood. This study aimed to assess the impact of bacteriocin production on LAB diversity in cheese, using Enterococcus as a model organism, a common bacteriocin producer. We analyzed enterocin production of enterococcal isolates by antimicrobial assays and microbial diversity differences in raw milk cheeses by two approaches: 16S RNA gene amplicon metagenomic sequencing for the whole microbial community and multi-locus sequence analysis (MLSA) for the enterococcal diversity. Our results revealed that LAB communities were dominated by lactococci, lactobacilli, and streptococci, with enterococci present in lower numbers. However, cheeses containing bacteriocin-producing enterococci exhibited higher microbial diversity. Interestingly, the highest diversity occurred at low levels of bacteriocin producers, but this effect was not observed within enterococcal populations. These findings suggest that bacteriocin production plays a key role in shaping LAB communities during cheese ripening, although further research is needed to understand its broader implications in other microbial ecosystems. 2025-03-04T10:28:55Z 2025-03-04T10:28:55Z 2025-01-22 journal article Teso-Pérez, C., López-Gazcón, A., Peralta-Sánchez, J.M. et al. Bacteriocin-Producing Enterococci Modulate Cheese Microbial Diversity. Microb Ecol 87, 175 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-025-02491-7 https://hdl.handle.net/10481/102837 10.1007/s00248-025-02491-7 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ open access Atribución 4.0 Internacional Springer Nature