Short communication Tetragenococcus koreensis is part of the microbiota in a traditional Italian raw fermented sausage Carmela Amadoro a, * , Franca Rossi a, b , Michele Piccirilli a , Giampaolo Colavita a a Department of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Molise, Via de Sanctis SNC, 86100, Campobasso, Italy b Department of Biotechnology, University of Verona, S.da Le Grazie 15, 37134, Verona, Italy article info Article history: Received 10 November 2014 Received in revised form 25 March 2015 Accepted 31 March 2015 Available online 8 April 2015 Keywords: Tetragenococcus koreensis Fermented sausages Genetic typing Physiological characterization abstract This study reports the isolation of Tetragenococcus koreensis, a bacterial species currently represented only by the type strain isolated from kimchi, from a raw fermented and ripened Italian sausage, Ven- tricina Vastese, all over the ripening period of five months. Rep-PCR genotyping showed that different T. koreensis strains, identified by sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene, were present in the same production batch. Tests on representative isolates showed intra-species physiological variability and the possession of phenotypic traits relevant for the production of fermented sausages, i.e. ability to grow at high salt concentrations, to induce some changes in the peptide profile of the culture medium and inability to produce histamine and tyramine, confirmed by the absence of the respective decarboxylase genes. Therefore the opportunity to further investigate the suitability of T. koreensis as a starter for fermented meat products was suggested. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Traditional food products, defined by the Italian law as those that have been manufactured by a well established process in a given geographical area for at least 25 years (DM 350/1999), ach- ieve distinctive compositional, sensorial and safety characteristics by action of the natural microbiota, so that the development of starter cultures composed by autochthonous microorganisms per- mits the safeguard of both quality and hygiene. Ventricina Vastese is a low-acid fermented sausage (final pH values over 5.3) typical of the Abruzzi and Molise regions that undergoes a spontaneous fermentation at low temperatures and is made from pork meat hand cut into pieces with sides of 2e7 cm, spiced with sweet and hot chilli pepper, stuffed in pig intestine, stomach and bladders or bovine intestine and ripened for 5e12 months. Microbial species found to predominate in Ventricina Vastese are Lactobacillus sakei, Staphylococcus xylosus and Staphy- lococcus equorum (Amadoro et al., 2013). In addition, in previous investigations, also Gram-positive, catalase negative cocci, identi- fied by sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene as Tetragenococcus kore- ensis, were isolated during the whole ripening period (Colavita, unpublished). This species was not found in fermented meat products before and is currently represented only by the type strain isolated from kimchi (Lee et al., 2005). Among tetragenococci, only Tetragenococcus halophilus was previously isolated from salted meat products (La Pietra et al., 1999; Holzapfel et al., 2006) and was detected by a culture independent analysis in two PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) meat prod- ucts from Northern Italy (Busconi et al., 2014). This study was aimed at increasing knowledge on the physi- ology of T. koreensis and at elucidating if further studies on its role in the manufacture of fermented meat products are opportune. New isolates were genetically typed by Rep-PCR and isolates representative of different genotypic clusters were identified by sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. Moreover, technologically rele- vant traits, such as nitrate reduction, growth at different combi- nations of temperature/NaCl concentration, biogenic amine production and proteolytic capacity, were analysed. 2. Materials and methods 2.1. Bacterial strains and culture conditions Two batches of Ventricina Vastese sausage were manufactured in separate production plants according to the traditional method (Piccirilli and Colavita, 2008) and without the addition of starter cultures. The mixture was constituted by pork meat added of 2.5% * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ39 0874 404605; fax: þ39 0874 404778. E-mail address: carmela.amadoro@unimol.it (C. Amadoro). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Food Microbiology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/fm http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fm.2015.03.011 0740-0020/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Food Microbiology 50 (2015) 78e82