Short communication: Presence of Lactococcus and lactococcal exopolysaccharide operons on the leaves of Pinguicula vulgaris supports the traditional source of bacteria present in Scandinavian ropy fermented milk

Some traditional Scandinavian fermented milk products have a pronounced ropy consistency due to the presence of exopolysaccharide-producing strains of Lactococcus lactis ssp. cremoris. Norwegian food folklore describes how leaves from the carnivorous plant Pinguicula vulgaris (common butterwort) may be added to milk to initiate the fermentation of the traditional fermented milk product tettemelk. However, scientific confirmation of the link between the plant and the milk product has not been previously published. In the present study, the microbiome on 20 samples of P. vulgaris leaves collected from 5 different rural geographical locations in Norway and from 4 samples of commercial tettemelk was analyzed using high-throughput sequencing methods. The leaf microbiota of P. vulgaris was dominated by Proteobacteria and Firmicutes and the genus Lactococcus was demonstrated in all leaf samples. In addition, DNA extracted from the leaf microbiome contained genes identical to those responsible for exopolysaccharide production in Lactococcus. These results confirm the traditional use of P. vulgaris as a source of bacteria for the Norwegian ropy fermented milk product tettemelk and indicate that P. vulgaris microbiomes can be a potential source of lactic acid bacteria with interesting dairy technological features.