Identification of L. casei and L. rhamnosus in the dairy products using real-time PCR assay.

Lactobacilli are essential and important biological objects used in food pro-duction and medicine. One of the sufficient problems is fast, reliable and highly specific identification of lactobacilli in the scientific research and cur-rent production control. We represent two species-specific real-time PCR in the present study to discriminate L. rhamnosus and L. casei basing on the unique peptidoglycan-hydrolase genes p40 and p75 respectively. PCR pri-mers and probes were designed to provide high specificity discrimination via high temperature of PCR annealing stage. High efficiency of the reactions is provided by the size of amplified DNA fragments minimization. Reliable re-producibility of the target sequences amplification and fluorescence detec-tion provide a basis for the future creation of industrial test-systems for op-erational control in the production of fermented dairy products.