Mycoflora dynamics analysis of Korean traditional wheat-based nuruk

J Microbiol. 2014 Dec;52(12):1025-9. doi: 10.1007/s12275-014-4620-0. Epub 2014 Nov 29.

Abstract

The growing popularity of traditional Korean alcoholic beverages has led to a demand for quality enhancement of the traditional starter culture nuruk, which consists primarily of wheat. Therefore, this study focused on mycoflora characterization and the temporal variations in traditional wheat-based nuruks fermented at two representative traditional temperature conditions for 30 days. Nuruk A was fermented at a constant temperature of 36°C for 30 days and nuruk B was fermented at a high initial temperature of 45°C for 10 days followed by 35°C for 20 days. The average mycoflora load in the two different nuruk conditions did not vary significantly between the 0 and 30 day cultures, and a maximum load of 8.39 log CFU/g was observed for nuruk A on culture day 3 and 7.87 log CFU/g for nuruk B on culture day 30. Within two samples, pH was negatively correlated with temporal changes in mycoflora load. The pH of nuruk A was significantly lower than that of nuruk B at all of the time points evaluated. Culture-dependent characterization led to the identification of 55 fungal isolates belonging to 9 genera and 15 species, with the most prominent genera comprising Lichtheimia, Penicillium, Trametes, Aspergillus, Rhizomucor, and Mucor. A total of 25 yeast isolates were characterized belonging to 6 genera and 7 species, the most prominent among which were Rhodotorula, Pichia, Debaryomyces, Saccharomycopsis, and Torulospora. Mycofloral community dynamics analysis revealed that both samples A and B varied considerably with respect to the fungal communities over a span of 30 days.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Alcoholic Beverages / microbiology
  • Aspergillus / isolation & purification
  • Biodiversity
  • Fermentation*
  • Fungi / classification*
  • Fungi / genetics
  • Fungi / isolation & purification*
  • Mucor / isolation & purification
  • Penicillium / isolation & purification
  • Rhizomucor / isolation & purification
  • Temperature
  • Trametes / isolation & purification
  • Triticum / microbiology*
  • Yeasts / classification*
  • Yeasts / genetics
  • Yeasts / isolation & purification*