Microbial ecosystems present in cheese brines

Cheese brines are used to lower the water activity of the cheese matrix, extending the shelf life of cheeses. To expand the limited knowledge about the microbiology of brines, which was based on culture-dependent analyses only, the microbial species composition of brines used at an artisan and large-scale cheese producer, both located in Flanders, Belgium, was assessed through high-throughput amplicon sequencing (targeting bacteria and fungi) and shotgun metagenomic sequencing of the same samples.