In recent years, several researches focused on the investigation of the microbial composition and population dynamics of milk and dairy products. These matrices present complex microbial communities composed by microrganisms with technological relevance (that convey food with desirable sensorial features), and others undesirable microrganisms (such as spoilage bacteria or food-borne pathogens). Traditionallyfood associated microbiota has been analyzed by culture-based methods. However, these techniques are not reliable to characterize the entire microbial population: in fact, it is difficult to reproduce the optimal growing conditions in laboratory, and the species present in low number are out competed from others in high number. Conseguently several attempts have been done in the last years to develop culture-independent techniques to study microbiota by passing culturing steps. These approaches permit the simultaneously detection and characterization of the whole microbial ecosystem, allowing also the identification of microorganisms difficult to culture or not-cultivable. Among these techniques, High-Throughput-Sequencing (HTS), also known as Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) allow a deeper description of the microbial constituents of the ecosystems. In this context, our research group is working on the characterization of microbiota present in milk and traditional dairy products combining molecular culture-based approaches (RAPD-PCR) with culture independent methods (NGS).

• "Caratterizzazione del latte d’asina: requisti igienico sanitari e caratterizzazione della flora microbica lattica" - Ricerca Locale, Università degli Studi di Torino - 2013
• "CCCP-Caratterizzazione, certificazione e controllo Plaisentif" (08000540149) finanziato dalla Regione Piemonte nell’ambito del programma Programma di Sviluppo rurale 2007-2014 – 2013.
• "Caratterizzazione del latte innesto nella produzione della Robiola di Roccaverano" - Ricerca Locale, Università degli Studi di Torino - 2017.

• Biolcati F., Andrighetto C., Bottero M.T., Dalmasso A. - Microbial characterization of an artisanal production of Robiola di Roccaverano cheese - Journal of Dairy Science - 2020 - p. 4056-4067.ISSN: 1525-3198, doi: 10.3168/jds.2019-17451
• Biolcati F., Bottero M.T., Dalmasso A. - Microbiological analysis of the Robiola di Roccaverano cheese by means of traditional culturing methods - Italian Journal of Food Safety - 2019 - vol. 8:8574, p. 209-212, ISSN: 2239-7132, doi: 10.4081/ijfs.2019.8574
• Soto del Rio M.dlD., Dalmasso A., Civera T., Bottero M.T. - Characterization of bacterial communities of donkey milk by high-through put sequencing -  International Journal of Food Microbiology - 2017 - vol. 251, p. 67-72, ISSN: 0168-1605, doi: 10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2017.03.023
• Dalmasso A., Soto del Rio M.dlD., Civera T., Pattono D., Cardazzo B., Bottero M.T. - Characterization of microbiota in Plaisentifcheese by high-through put sequencing - Lebensmittel-Wissenschaft + Technologie - 2016 - vol. 69, p. 490-496, ISSN: 0023-6438, doi: DOI: 10.1016/j.lwt.2016.02.004
• Soto del Rio M.dlD., Andrighetto C., Dalmasso A., Lombardi A., Civera T., Bottero M.T. - Isolation and characterisation of lactic acid bacteria from donkey milk - The Journal Of Dairy Research - 2016 - vol. 83, p. 383-386, ISSN: 0022-0299, doi: 10.1017/S0022029916000376
• Foschino R., Nucera D., Volponi G., Picozzi C., Ortoffi M., Bottero M.T. - Comparison of Lactococcus garvieae strains isolated in northern italy from dairy products and fishes through molecular typing - Journal of AppliedMicrobiology - 2008 - vol. 105(3):652-662.DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2672.2008.03780.x