title: Lactic acid bacteria dynamics  during spontaneous fermentation of cocoa beans verified by culture-independent  denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis.
abstract: Cocoa  is naturally fermented in the field before the cocoa seeds are removed for  processing. We assessed the dynamics of lactic acid bacteria during cocoa  fermentation in Bahia, Brazil. During five days of fermentation, temperature  and pH were measured and beans were collected for genomic DNA extraction every  12 h. The DNA was used as a template for amplification with Lac1-Lac2 and  Lac3-Lac2 for denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analyses. pH values  ranged from 3.34 to 4.98, while the temperature varied from 23° to 50°C.  Lac1-Lac2 primers permitted detection of 11 operational taxonomic units.  Twenty-eight operational taxonomic units were obtained with the primer pair  Lac3-Lac2. It was observed that there were variations between the numbers of  operational taxonomic units throughout the process, probably because of changes  in pH and temperature. The greatest similarity in amplified samples was  obtained with the primers Lac3-Lac2.
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Biotecnologia Microbiológica, Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade de Santa Cruz, Ilhéus, BA, Brasil.
authors.forename: T F
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.forename: L K A
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Santana
authors.forename: A C F
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.forename: G S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Romano
authors.forename: J C T
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Dias
authors.forename: R P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Rezende
mesh_terms: D002099:Cacao / Q000382:microbiology*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D005285:Fermentation / Q000502:physiology*; D006358:Hot Temperature; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D007778:Lactobacillus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000302:isolation & purification; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D012639:Seeds / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial