Figure 1.

Genetic lineage coverage of propagated starter culture. MRS supplemented with vancomycine (MRSV), M17-lactose (LM17), Reddy's agar plate counts and fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) total cell counts are the mean of three replicates. The highest viable count for a particular genetic lineage among all selective media was taken as the closest approximation for the contribution of that genetic lineage to the community and is given as estimated count. ND and NA are the abbreviations for not detected and not applicable, respectively. Genetic lineage 7 cells that belong to L. lactis subsp. cremoris accounted for 78.2% of the total starter community and was exclusively recovered from Reddy agar medium. The majority of the remaining L. lactis isolates belonged to two genetic lineages of subspecies cremoris (genetic lineage 1 and 5), whereas the remaining isolates constituted only a minor fraction and encompassed two L. lactis subsp. cremoris (genetic lineage 3 and 6) and two L. lactis subsp. lactis biovar. diacetylactis (genetic lineage 2 and 4) lineages. These quantitatively minor lineages were recovered only on M17-lactose agar media, because their small population size relative to the dominating lineage 7 prevented their detection on Reddy agar. 1 and 2 represents the cumulative contribution of genetic lineage 1 and 5 and the cumulative contribution of genetic lineage 2 and 4, respectively.