Some probiotic properties of yeast isolates from infant faeces and Feta cheese

Yeast isolates from infant faeces and Feta cheese were characterized to spe cies level by phenotypic criteria, Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD )-PCR and mitochondrial DNA (mt-DNA) restriction analysis. Results suggeste d that there is a good agreement between phenotypic characterization of yea sts and RAPD-PCR at species level; in addition, RAPD-PCR as well as mt-DNA restriction analysis provided good discrimination at strain level. Some tec hnological and probiotic properties of selected strains were also investiga ted. The test strains exhibited lipolytic and proteolytic activities. They also tolerated low pH and survived satisfactory in gastric juice in vitro a s well as in the presence of bile. In general, the isolates from faeces wer e more resistant to low pH and bile than those from Feta cheese. Selected s trains could be used as starter supplements for industrial fermentations. ( C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.