DNA Fingerprinting of Lactic Acid Bacteria in Sauerkraut Fermentations

Abstract

Previous studies using traditional biochemical identification methods to study the ecology of commercial sauerkraut fermentations revealed that four species of lactic acid bacteria, Leuconostoc mesenteroides, Lactobacillus plantarum, Pediococcus pentosaceus, and Lactobacillus brevis, were the primary microorganisms in these fermentations. In this study, 686 isolates were collected from four commercial fermentations and analyzed by DNA fingerprinting. The results indicate that the species of lactic acid bacteria present in sauerkraut fermentations are more diverse than previously reported and include Leuconostoc citreum, Leuconostoc argentinum, Lactobacillus paraplantarum, Lactobacillus coryniformis, and Weissella sp. The newly identified species Leuconostoc fallax was also found. Unexpectedly, only two isolates of P. pentosaceus and 15 isolates of L. brevis were recovered during this study. A better understanding of the microbiota may aid in the development of low-salt fermentations, which may have altered microflora and altered sensory characteristics.Sauerkraut fermentation involves many physical, chemical, and microbiological changes that influence the quality and safety of the product. This fermentation can be broadly categorized as having successive stages, including an initial heterofermentative stage followed by a homofermentative stage (11,22). Historically, four species of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have been identified as organisms that are present in sauerkraut fermentations: Leuconostoc mesenteroides, Lactobacillus brevis, Pediococcus pentosaceus, and Lactobacillus plantarum. The identification of these microorganisms has been based on morphological and biochemical criteria (22). Several species of LAB other than the four species mentioned above have been found in cabbage fermentations, including Lactobacillus curvatus, Lactobacillus sakei, Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis, and Leuconostoc fallax (3,19,25). Recently, six L. fallax strains were isolated from brine samples obtained from sauerkraut fermentations (2). The methods used for taxonomic characterization of LAB have been modified, and new species have been identified using molecular techniques (1,10,20,24). Improvements in molecular identification techniques for the study of microbial ecology have created new opportunities for the analysis of food fermentations.This study was carried out because of the need to reduce sodium chloride (salt) waste from commercial vegetable fermentations. It is well documented that the concentration of salt has a controlling influence on the microbial succession in a typical sauerkraut fermentation (11,12,22). It may be possible to reduce salt waste by fermenting cabbage with 1% salt instead of 2% salt, the concentration typically used. The introduction of an L. mesenteroides starter culture to the fermentation could help ensure that the initial stage of the fermentation produces the desirable flavor compounds (11). A method has been developed (23) to determine the ability of an unmarked starter culture to predom...

Dominant Microorganisms during the Spontaneous Fermentation of Suan Cai, a Chinese Fermented Vegetable

“…Therefore, the suan cai fermentation process can be d i v i d e d i n t o h e t e r o f e r m e n t a t i v e f e r m e n t a t i o n a n d homofermentative fermentation stages. The results were similar to previous research on fermented vegetables (Chao et al, 2009;Plengvidhya et al, 2007). grows well at 15℃ and more slowly at 4℃, but no growth was observed at 37℃ (Koort et al, 2005).…”

“…Its optimum growth temperature is 26℃ (Torriani et al, 1996). This result is potentially significant for screening efficient inoculants for controlling the plantarum is often a dominant microorganism at the latter stages of sauerkraut fermentation (Breidt et al, 1993;Plengvidhya et al, 2007).…”

“…microbial populations of several foods, such as American sauerkraut (Plengvidhya et al, 2007), kimchi (Lee et al, 2005), and Chinese paocai (Xiong et al, 2012) during the fermentation were well investigated. These variations resulted in chemical changes in fermented system.…”

Changes in Microbial Community Composition during Production of Takanazuke

“…Under such conditions, L. sakei uses the arginine deiminase (ADI) pathway (Rimaux et al, 2012) to convert arginine to ornithine and ATP, and also producing ammonia as a byproduct. L. sakei CTC 494 has been reported to use the ADI pathway at pH 4.5, albeit not to a high degree (Rimaux (Hutkins, 2006, Plengvidhya et al, 2007. In the traditional fermentation of cauliflower (B. oleracea) in Greece, the Leu.…”

“…The isolation and microbial community analysis of LAB from pickled vegetables have been widely reported (Tamang et al, 2005;Plengvidhya et al, 2007;Chao et al, 2009;Tanganurat et al, 2009;Paramithiotis et al, 2010). However, as certain species of LAB are not readily isolated by common laboratory methods (Ampe et al, 1999), both culture-dependent and -independent methods are currently used for the analysis of microbial communities in fermented food (Giraffa, 2004, Temmerman et al, 2004.…”