Abstract Detail

Mycology

Benucci, Gian Maria Niccolo [1], Wang, Xinxin [1], Li, Zhang [2], Fuqiang, Yu-Chun [2], Bonito, Gregory [3].

Yeast and lactic acid bacteria dominate the core microbiome of fermented ‘hairy’ tofu (Mao tofu).

The process of fermenting tofu extends thousands of years and has become an indispensable part of Chinese dietary culture. Despite a resurgent interest in microbial communities and fermented foods, little knowledge exists concerning microbial diversity of communities of fermented ‘hairy’ tofu known in China as Mao tofu. We used high-throughput metabarcoding sequencing of the ITS, LSU and 16S rDNA marker genes to disentangle the Mao tofu fungal and bacterial community composition and diversity across the four most important markets in the Yunnan region of China. We show that hairy tofu in this region consists of around 170 fungal and 365 bacterial taxa. Significant differences in community structure were found between markets and niches. Fungal and bacterial microbiomes undergo similar environmental constraints as shown by procrustes analyses. Machine learning random forest models were able to accurately classify both market and niche of sample origin and identify the top important OTUs for classification. An over-abundance of yeast taxa were detected, and Geotrichum were the most abundant fungal taxa, followed by Torulaspora, Trichosporon, and Pichia. Mucor (Mucormycota) was also abundant in the LSU data and especially in the outside niche (rind), which consists of the visible ‘hairy’ mycelium. The majority of the bacterial OTUs belonged to Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, and Bacteroidota, with Acinetobacter, Lactobacillus, Sphingobacterium and Flavobacterium the most abundant members. Of interest, putative fungal pathogens of plants (Cercospora, Diaporthe, Fusarium) and animal (Metarhizium, Entomomortierella, Pyxidiophora, Candida, Clavispora), as well as bacterial (Legionella) pathogens, were detected. Non-target eukaryotic taxa detected in by LSU amplicon sequencing included soybean (Glycine max), Protozoa, Metazoa (e.g. Nematoda and Platyhelminthes), Rhizaria and Chromista, providing evidence of even more diversity in the tofu microbiome.

1 - Michigan State University, 1066 Bogue st, East Lansing, MI, 48824, United States
2 - Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming Institute of Botany, Kunming, China
3 - Michigan State University, Plant, Soil, and Microbial Sciences, 1066 Bogue St., Rm A286, East Lansing, MI, 48824, United States

Keywords:
Soybean
UPARSE
high-throughput Illumina MiSeq
lactic-acid bacteria
Tremellomycetes
Geotrichum
Microbiome-based Random Forest models
Mycology.

Presentation Type: Poster
Session: MYP2, Mycology Posters II
Location: Virtual/Virtual
Date: Tuesday, July 20th, 2021
Time: 5:00 PM(EDT)
Number: MYP2005
Abstract ID:372
Candidate for Awards:None