Pyrosequencing reveals bacterial diversity in Korean traditional wheat-based nuruk

The emerging global importance of Korea’s alcoholic beverages emphasizes the need for quality enhancement of nuruk, a traditional Korean cereal starter that is used extensively in traditional brewing. Apart from fungi and yeasts, bacteria known to be ubiquitously present are also a part of the nuruk ecosystem and are known to influence fermentation activity by influencing fermentation favorable factors. In the current study, bacterial diversity and temporal variations in the traditional wheat-based nuruk, fermented at two representative temperature conditions for 30 days, along with two commercial wheat-based nuruk samples for comparison analysis were evaluated using libraries of PCR amplicons and 454 pyrosequencing targeting of the hypervariable regions V1 to V3 of the 16S rRNA gene. A total of 90,836 16S reads were analyzed and assigned to a total of 314, 321, and 141 Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) for nuruk A, B, and C, respectively. Diversity parameters clearly indicated nuruk B to be more diverse in terms of bacterial composition than nuruk A. Taxonomic assignments indicated that nuruk A was dominated by phylum Cyanobacteria, whereas nuruk B was dominated by phylum Actinobacteria. For both nuruk A and B, members of the phylum Firmicutes mostly converged into the family Bacillaceae; these microorganisms might be present in negligible numbers at the beginning but became significant as the fermentation progressed. The commercial samples were predominated by phylum Firmicutes, which is composed of Lactobacillaceae and Leoconostocaceae. The findings of this study provide new insights into understanding the changes in bacterial community structure during traditional nuruk starter production.