Physiological and molecular studies of Mucor adaptation to cheese matrices ; Etudes physiologiques et moléculaires de l'adaptation des Mucor aux matrices fromagères

In the cheese industry context, Mucor species exhibit an ambivalent behavior, as some species are essential technological organisms contributing to the required organoleptic characteristics of some cheeses while some others can be spoiling agents. The present study aimed at better understanding this ambivalence and investigating the putative adaptation mechanisms to cheese existing in Mucor technological species. Morphology and radial growth of 7 representative Mucor species: technological, contaminant and non-cheese related (plant endophyte) species were monitored on different media (synthetic, cheese-mimicking media and cheese) in function of key parameters for cheese manufacture (temperature, aw, pH). Cardinal values were determined on synthetic medium and as a result a predictive model was proposed and validated on cheese matrices for the temperature parameter. Interestingly, cheese technological species exhibited higher optimal growth rates on cheese related matrices than on synthetic media, while the opposite was observed for non-technological species. A comparative proteomic approach allowed unraveling the main metabolic pathways playing a role in growth of 4 of the 7 studied strains on both synthetic medium and cheese-mimicking medium. This proteomic study also highlighted the occurrence of 35 proteins specifically expressed by the technological strains M. lanceolatus UBOCC-A-109153 on the cheese-mimicking medium. Putative competitive and adaptative advantages of these hypothetical adaptation markers will be tested through additional investigations. ; Dans le contexte fromager, les champignons filamenteux du genre Mucor ont un rôle ambivalent. En fonction du fromage considéré, ils peuvent être assimilés à des microorganismes d’altération responsables de défauts de fabrication ou au contraire contribuer au développement des qualités organoleptiques des produits. Dans le cadre de ce travail, nous avons souhaité confirmer et objectiver la dichotomie classiquement faite en industrie fromagère entre espèces ...