Impact of a selected Debaryomyces hansenii strain's inoculation on the quality of Sardinian fermented sausages.

Dominant yeast species in Salsiccia Sarda, a traditional fermented sausage produced in Sardinia (Italy), were evaluated through the monitoring three typical production processes. Six different species were identified by molecular techniques, but Debaryomyces (D.) hansenii proved to be dominant.

Novel starters for old processes: use of Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains isolated from artisanal sourdough for craft beer production at a brewery scale.

The deliberate inoculation of yeast strains isolated from food matrices such as wine or bread, could allow the transfer of novel properties to beer. In this work, the feasibility of the use of baker's yeast strains as starters for craft beer production has been evaluated at laboratory and brewery scale. Nine out of 12 Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains isolated from artisanal sourdoughs metabolized 2 % maltose, glucose and trehalose and showed growth rates and cell populations higher than those of the brewer's strain Safbrew-S33.

Rapid prenatal diagnosis of common chromosome aneuploidies by QF-PCR, results of 9 years of clinical experience.

Background: Despite being deliberately targeted to common chromosome aneuploidies, the rapid quantitative fluorescent polymerase chain reaction (QF-PCR) tests can detect the majority of chromosome abnormalities in prenatal diagnosis. The main advantages of this assay are low cost, speed and automation allowing large-scale application.

Methods: We developed a QF-PCR test that was applied on 43 000 clinical samples reporting results in 24 h.

Rapid prenatal diagnosis by QF-PCR: evaluation of 30,000 consecutive clinical samples and future applications.

Rapid prenatal diagnoses of major chromosome abnormalities can be performed on a large scale using highly polymorphic short tandem repeats (STRs) amplified by the quantitative fluorescent polymerase chain reaction (QF-PCR). The assay was introduced as a preliminary investigation to remove the anxiety of the parents waiting for the results by conventional cytogenetic analysis using amniotic fluid or chorionic cells. However, recent studies, on the basis of the analyses of several thousand samples, have shown that this rapid approach has a very high rate of success and could reduce the need for cytogenetic investigations.