Abstract
Cheese is a typical handcrafted fermented food in Kazak minority from the Uighur Autonomy Region in China and Central Asia. Among the microbial community that is responsible for Kazak cheese fermentation, yeasts play important role in flavor formation during ripening. To develop ripening cultures, we isolated 123 yeasts from 25 cheese products in Kazak, and identified 87 isolates by the D1/D2 domain of the large subunit rRNA gene sequence. Pichia kudriavzevii was the dominant yeast in Kazak cheese, followed by Kluyveromyces marxianus and Kluyveromyces lactis. Of these, the ability to exhibit enzyme of dominant isolates and contribution to the typical flavor of cheeses was assessed. Enzyme producing yeast strains were inoculated in Hazak cheese-like medium and volatile compounds were identified by head space solid phase micro extraction coupled to gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy. Pichia kudriavzevii N-X displayed the strongest extracellular proteolytic and activity on skim milk agar and produced a range of aroma compounds (ethanol, ethyl acetate, 3-methylbutanol, and acetic acid) for Kazak cheese flavor, could be explored as ripening cultures in commercial production of Kazak cheeses.