Genetic diversity of Lactobacillus delbrueckii in home-made Dahi from different regions of India as revealed by genotyping-by-sequencing

Abstract Microbial diversity of bacterial species in home-made curd from different states of India was analyzed using genotyping-by-sequencing. The most prevalent species were Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus, Lactobacillus helveticus, Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens . Pathogenic species such as Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium and Shigella dysenteriae were found in over 60% of samples. High intraspecific variation was observed in Acinetobacter baumannii, Bacillus cereus, Enterococcus faecium, Escherichia coli, Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris, Lactococcus piscium, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium and Shigella dysenteriae . Intra-specific genetic relatedness in Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus in curd samples largely correlated with their respective sites of collection. Research Highlights Metagenomic DNA from home-made Dahi (curd) samples from various states in India were used for GBS-SNPs GBS-SNPs were able to resolve within-species variability across the samples. Majority of the samples contained both probiotic as well as potential pathogenic bacteria. Several of curd samples contained multiple strains.