Analysis of bacterial and fungal communities in Marcha and Thiat, traditionally prepared amylolytic starters of India

Abstract

Marcha and thiat are traditionally prepared amylolytic starters use for production of various ethnic alcoholic beverages in Sikkim and Meghalaya states in India. In the present study we have tried to investigate the bacterial and fungal community composition of marcha and thiat by using high throughput sequencing. Characterization of bacterial community depicts phylum Proteobacteria is the most dominant in both marcha (91.4%) and thiat (53.8%), followed by Firmicutes, and Actinobacteria. Estimates of fungal community composition showed Ascomycota as the dominant phylum. Presence of Zygomycota in marcha distinguishes it from the thiat. The results of NGS analysis revealed dominance of yeasts in marcha whereas molds out numbers in case of thiat. This is the first report on microbial communities of traditionally prepared amylolytic starters of India using high throughput sequencing.

Diversity of Yeasts and Molds by Culture-Dependent and Culture-Independent Methods for Mycobiome Surveillance of Traditionally Prepared Dried Starters for the Production of Indian Alcoholic Beverages

“…Khekhrii of Nagaland is prepared by naturally fermenting sprouted-rice grains and then sun-dried to use as dry starter culture to prepare zutho , local alcoholic beverage. Some species of yeasts Saccharomycopsis fibuligera, S. capsularis, Pichia anomala, P. burtonii, P. guilliermondii, P. fabianii, Trichosporon sp., Candida tropicalis, C. parapsilosis, C. montana, C. glabrata, Torulaspora delbrueckii, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, S. bayanus , and Wickerhamomyces anomalus were previously reported from some samples of marcha and hamei of India ( Hesseltine and Kurtzman, 1990 ; Tamang and Sarkar, 1995 ; Tsuyoshi et al, 2005 ; Jeyaram et al, 2008 , 2011 , Sha et al, 2016 , 2017 ).…”

“…Ethnic people practicing the age-old traditional preservation or sub-culturing amylolytic and alcohol-producing as well as flavor-enhancing fungi and bacteria have attracted many researchers to study the microbial diversity in such starters. In recent years, few researchers have reported the fungal and bacterial species using both culture-dependent and-independent techniques in some common starter cultures of Asia such as marcha of India ( Tsuyoshi et al, 2005 ; Sha et al, 2017 ), daqua of China ( Wang et al, 2008 ; Zheng et al, 2012 ; Lv et al, 2013 ; Chen et al, 2014 ; Xu et al, 2017 ), benh men of Vietnam ( Dung et al, 2007 ; Thanh et al, 2008 ); nuruk of Korea ( Jung et al, 2012 ), and dombea of Cambodia ( Ly et al, 2018 ).…”

“…No studies have been conducted on traditionally prepared starters of India except marcha ( Tamang and Sarkar, 1995 ; Tsuyoshi et al, 2005 ; Sha et al, 2016 , 2017 ), and hamei ( Tamang et al, 2007 ; Jeyaram et al, 2008 , 2011 ). Based on our preliminary analysis of microbial load in traditionally prepared starters of North East India, fungi mostly yeasts and filamentous molds (>10 6 cfu/g) predominate over bacteria.…”

Exploring the microbiota and metabolites of traditional rice beer varieties of Assam and their functionalities

“…Microbes have a very complex role in cereal fermentation and involves mixed cultures of yeasts, bacteria and fungi (Das et al 2014). A study on Marcha and Thiat, a starter cake used for the preparation of alcoholic beverage in Sikkim and Meghalaya states in India showed that proteobacteria was a dominant phylum followed by Firmicutes and Actinobacteria (Sha et al 2017). A study showed that succession of moulds and yeasts followed by LAB played an important role in fermentation of rice to produce alcohol and lactic acid (Ghosh et al 2015).…”

“…It is believed that consumption of rice beer reduces stress and prevents gastrointestinal infections (Ray et al 2016). Few studies had reported the microbial composition of the starter cake and the biochemical composition of the rice beer (Bhuyan et al 2014;Das et al 2014;Ghosh et al 2015;Sha et al 2017). However, a detailed study on the microbial diversity, their functionalities and the metabolites of rice beer varieties is not yet available to understand their probable effects on health.…”