Microorganisms Collection “ACA-DC”

The ACA-DC is a member of the following associations:

History

The Laboratory of Dairy Research at the Agricultural University of Athens started in 1986, through an initiative of Prof. George Kalantzopoulos, the first systematic survey of the "wild" Greek food microflora.

The main objective was not only to investigate, but also to maintain in the form of a collection, mainly the dairy products’ microbial diversity in Greece. This initiative started, and the effort expanded through the years, under the auspices of several European Union funded research programmes.

The Laboratory has meanwhile created the first open collection in Greece, with the acronym ACA-DC, including known species of lactic acid bacteria, propionibacteria and yeast strains isolated from traditional fermented products, such as cheese, yogurt, sourdough and wine.

To date, the collection comprises 622 bacterial and 81 yeast strains identified to species level, while many strains are currently under identification. Finally, and for comparison reasons, the respective type strains along with several reference strains, obtained from international collections, have been also deposited in the ACA-DC collection. All strains are preserved either as frozen at – 80 ^oC and/or freeze-dried.

For the identification of strains, phenotypic methods, such as sugar fermentation patterns and physiological tests, along with the SDS-PAGE analysis of whole cell proteins are applied. When necessary, molecular techniques like the species-specific PCR and the RAPD-PCR analyses are incorporated in the identification scheme.

Moreover, strains are screened for technologically interesting biochemical properties, such as milk acidification ability, proteolytic and lipolytic activities, production of bacteriocins, and production of secondary metabolites, such as flavor compounds and biogenic amines. The technological performance of selected bacteria and yeast strains is assessed in experimental food fermentations and food production. In recent years, we focus also on the probiotic potential of lactic acid bacteria. Strains are evaluated for their potential to survive passage through the human GI tract. They are also examined for possessing pathogenicity traits, such as antibiotic resistance, haemolysis etc. Furthermore, their antimicrobial activity against pathogens is examined both in vitro and in vivo (animal models).

Detailed strain informations are stored in a user-friendly database, which allows comparison, correlation and statistics considering different characteristics of the strains.