Cereals & Grains Association
Log In

02 Features
Cereal Foods World, Vol. 64, No. 1
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1094/CFW-64-1-0003
Print To PDF
Molecular Approaches to Understanding Microbial Populations in Traditional Fermented Grain Products
Kehu Li
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, PR China

 

Abstract

Humans have used fermentation to produce foods and beverages since the Neolithic Age. As a relatively low-cost and energy-efficient method of food preservation and processing, grain fermentation has long offered humans a wide variety of interesting, health-promoting, and complex products, including dietary staples, supplementary foods, and beverages. The microorganisms that participate in the fermentation process convert mainly sugars and other carbohydrates to organic acids, carbon dioxide, and alcohols that alter the texture, appearance, flavor, nutritional value, and safety status of the original grain-based substrate. Traditional fermented foods often rely on spontaneous fermentation from mixtures of microorganisms, without close control of the species or strains present. This creates challenges in maintaining product consistency and assuring product safety. For the food scientist, it is critical to understand the microbial profiles and population structures, dynamics, and functioning during fermentation in order to establish controls and achieve a fermented product with high, consistent batch-to-batch quality. Understanding of the microbial ecology of such systems is advancing rapidly thanks to recently developed molecular techniques. In this article interesting recent research on molecular analysis of microbial populations is introduced in order to explain the key techniques and demonstrate their usefulness in advancing the study of traditional grain fermentation processes.




Trying to reach content?

View Full Article

if you don't have access, become a member

References

  1.  Amann, R. I., Ludwig, W., and Schleifer, K. H. Phylogenetic identification and in situ detection of individual microbial cells without cultivation. Microbiol. Rev. 59:143, 1995.
  2. Cavalieri, D., McGovern, P. E., Hartl, D. L., Mortimer, R., and Polsinelli, M. Evidence for S. cerevisiae fermentation in ancient wine. J. Mol. Evol. 57(Suppl. 1):S226, 2003.
  3. Chen, T., Jiang, S., Xiong, S., Wang, M., Zhu, D., and Wei, H. Application of denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis to microbial diversity analysis in Chinese Douchi. J. Sci. Food Agric. 92:2171, 2012.
  4. Cocolin, L., Alessandria, V., Dolci, P., Gorra, R., and Rantsiou, K. Culture independent methods to assess the diversity and dynamics of microbiota during food fermentation. Int. J. Food Microbiol. 167:29, 2013.
  5. Coenye, T., and Vandamme, P. Intragenomic heterogeneity between multiple 16S ribosomal RNA operons in sequenced bacterial genomes. FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 228:45, 2003.
  6. Dirar, H. The Indigenous Fermented Foods of the Sudan: A Study in African Food and Nutrition. CAB International, Wallingford, U.K., 1993.
  7.  Giraffa, G., and Neviani, E. DNA-based, culture-independent strategies for evaluating microbial communities in food-associated ecosystems. Int. J. Food Microbiol. 67(1-2):19, 2001.
  8. Huang, Z. R., Hong, J. L., Xu, J. X., Li, L., Guo, W. L., et al. Exploring core functional microbiota responsible for the production of volatile flavour during the traditional brewing of Wuyi Hong Qu glutinous rice wine. Food Microbiol. 76:487, 2018.
  9.  Kaur, M., Bowman, J. P., Stewart, D. C., and Evans, D. E. The fungal community structure of barley malts from diverse geographical regions correlates with malt quality parameters. Int. J. Food Microbiol. 215:71, 2015.
  10. Lane, D. J. 16S/23S rRNA sequencing. Page 115 in: Nucleic Acid Techniques in Bacterial Systematics. E. Stackebrandt and M. Goodfellow, eds. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, U.K., 1991.
  11. Liu, W. T., Marsh, T. L., Cheng, H., and Forney, L. J. Characterization of microbial diversity by determining terminal restriction fragment length polymorphisms of genes encoding 16S rRNA. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 63:4516, 1997.
  12. McGovern, P. E., Zhang, J., Tang, J., Zhang, Z., Hall, G. R., et al. Fermented beverages of pre- and proto-historic China. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 101:17593, 2004.
  13. Perez, S., Czerner, M., Patat, M. L., Zaritzky, N. E., Murialdo, S. E., and Yeannes, M. I. Monitoring the characteristics of cultivable halophilic microbial community during salted-ripened anchovy (Engraulis anchoita) production. Int. J. Food Microbiol. 286:179, 2018.
  14. Stiles, M. E., and Holzapfel, W. E. Lactic acid bacteria of foods and their current taxonomy. Int. J. Food Microbiol. 36:1, 1997.
  15. Tsukuda, M., Kitahara, K., and Miyazaki, K. Comparative RNA function analysis reveals high functional similarity between distantly related bacterial 16 S rRNAs. Sci. Rep. 7:9993, 2017.
  16. Weidner, S., Arnold, W., and Pühler, A. Diversity of uncultured microorganisms associated with the seagrass Halophila stipulacea estimated by restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of PCR-amplified 16S rRNA genes. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 62:766, 1996.
  17. Weisburg, W. G., Barns, S. M., Pelletier, D. A., and Lane, D. J. 16S ribosomal DNA amplification for phylogenetic study. J. Bacteriol. 173:697, 1991.