Sichuan bacon is one of the most popular types of Chinese bacon in the domestic market. High-throughput sequencing was used to characterize the bacterial diversity of 39 Sichuan bacon samples collected from 3 geographical regions. The results showed that the bacterial diversity of Sichuan bacon in different regions demonstrated certain specificity as well as similarity, and the shared OTUs were close to 81% of the total number in the basin group, mountain group, and plateau group. At the genus level, Staphylococcus is the most dominant genus among the three groups, covering 26.7%, 20.6%, and 22.7%, respectively. Beta diversity shows significant differences in bacterial compositions in different geographic regions, especially for Pseudomonas, Brochothrix, Lactobacillus, Lactococcus, and Enterococcus. Meanwhile, some physicochemical characteristics were analyzed, and a significant difference (p < 0.05) among the three regions was shown in the Aw, pH, and nitrite content, which were significantly correlated with undesired bacteria. This study provides insights into the understanding of the role of bacterial communities in the microbial safety and quality improvement of Sichuan bacon.
Aims
To investigate the capability, properties and molecular mechanism of inulin fermentation by lactic acid bacteria (LAB) from Sichuan pickle.
Methods and Results
Seventy-nine LAB strains were purified from thirty aged Sichuan pickle brine samples, and only twenty-one Lactiplantibacillus plantarum strains (26.58%, 21/79) derived from fifteen samples grew well through utilizing inulin as a carbon source. The fermentation tests through using long-chain inulin (lc-inulin) as a carbon source showed that only six L. plantarum strains grew well, while other fifteen strains could only utilize short-chain oligofructose (FOS), and thin-layer chromatography analysis evidenced a strain-specificity of inulin consumption patterns. L. plantarum YT041 is a vigorous inulin-fermenter, and whole genome sequencing data revealed that sacPTS1 and fosRABCDXE operons might be associated with the fermentation of FOS and lc-inulin respectively.
Conclusions
The phenotype of inulin consumption is commonly present in LAB from Sichuan pickle, which is strain-specific and largely depends on their specific ecological niche and degree of polymerization.
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