Monitoring the bacterial community during fermentation of sunki, an unsalted, fermented vegetable traditional to the Kiso area of Japan.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the microbial community in sunki, an indigenous, unsalted, fermented vegetable, made from the leaves of red beet.


RESULTS
Fermenting samples were collected at 1- to 2-day intervals from four houses and investigated by culture-dependent and culture-independent techniques. PCR-Denaturing-Gradient-Gel-Electrophoresis profiles indicated that the bacterial community was stable and Lactobacillus delbrueckii, Lact. fermentum and Lact. plantarum were dominant during the fermentation. This result agreed well with that obtained by the culturing technique. Moulds, yeasts or bacteria other than lactic acid bacteria (LAB) were not detected.


CONCLUSIONS
The bacterial community was stable throughout the fermentation, and Lact. delbrueckii, Lact. fermentum and Lact. plantarum were dominant. The acidic pH and lactic acid produced by LAB probably preserve the sunki from spoilage.


CONCLUSIONS
This is the first report on the use of both culture-dependent and culture-independent techniques to study the bacterial community in sunki. A combination of culture-dependent and culture-independent techniques is necessary for the analysis of complex microbial communities.
Endo
A
A
NODAI Culture Collection Center, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Tokyo, Japan. pegaman@hotmail.co.jp
Mizuno
H
H
Okada
S
S
D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D005285:Fermentation; D005516:Food Microbiology; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D007564:Japan; D007778:Lactobacillus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D014675:Vegetables / Q000382:microbiology*