Evaluation of Basic Fermentation Parameters and Effective Combinations of Predominant Yeasts from Traditional Starter Materials of Indigenous Communities from Northeast India

Linking the Diversity of Yeasts Inherent in Starter Cultures to Quorum Sensing Mechanism in Ethnic Fermented Alcoholic Beverages of Northeast India

“…The Kachari community of Assam prepare modor pitha starter cultures that contain a consortia of S. cerevisiae, W. anomalus, and C. glabrata (Parasar et al, 2017;Anupama et al, 2018). To our utter surprise, the entire spectrum of starter cultures studied from the region revealed the presence of W. anomalous except for the starter cultures collected from the Ahom community (Parasar et al, 2017;Nath et al, 2020a). Occurrence of dominant yeasts in starter cultures are summarized in Table 1.…”

“…Each community harbors unique distribution of yeast species, which have been perpetuated throughout generations (Buragohain et al, 2013;Tiwari et al, 2014;Parasar et al, 2017) and this has resulted in the variety of alcoholic beverages assorted and produced by the communities through traditional fermentation practice. In household fermentation practiced by the communities of northeast India, solid-state starter cultures in the form of "flat cakes" or "spherical balls" are prepared from starchy substances such as rice, millets, maize, or wheat that are powdered and mixed with microbial inoculum (Nath et al, 2020a). These "cakes" supplement carbon constituents for the growth of yeasts that initiate fermentation.…”

“…Competition over common resources arises when two or more species of yeasts compete to thrive within a specified fermentation environment. However, cooperation between amylolytic and non-amylolytic yeasts always prove to be a beneficial trait when the population has to rely on starchy carbon source (Nath et al, 2020a). To note, non-Saccharomyces yeasts such as W. anomalus produces volatile compounds that enhance the aroma characteristics of wines, thereby enabling better quality yield of fermented beverage (Ye et al, 2014).…”

“…Here, we have mentioned only those starter cultures whose detailed studies are available in literature and which have been investigated by researchers from the region. The repertoire of cultures is colossal and shall require far more intricate research plans to reach a final conclusion regarding the origin, distribution, and diversity of yeast types and the array of traditional fermentation procedures practiced in the region (Parasar et al, 2017;Nath et al, 2020a). Our recent findings regarding distribution of yeasts in starter cakes (Parasar et al, 2017;Nath et al, 2020a) are illustrated in Figure 2.…”

“…Apart from the Asiatic region, the tradition of fermented product preparation is widespread among most of the indigenous communities belonging to different regions all over the world (Kabak and Dobson, 2011). These longstanding systems of alcoholic beverage preparation from various agricultural products with the aid of locally perpetuated fermentative agents have been in practice for generations indoctrinating indigenous knowledge system (Parasar et al, 2017;Nath et al, 2020a).…”