Sains Malaysiana 53(2)(2024): 307-319

http://doi.org/10.17576/jsm-2024-5302-06

The Common and Unique Microbiota in Sabah’s Traditional Rice Wine Starter Cultures (Sasad)

(Mikrobiota Biasa dan Unik dalam Kultur Pemula Wain Beras Tradisional Sabah (Sasad))

MEIWEI KOAY¹, HUI YIN FAN^2,* & CLEMENTE MICHAEL VUI LING WONG³

¹Faculty of Food Science and Nutrition, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Jalan UMS, 88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

²Food Security Research Laboratory, Faculty of Food Science and Nutrition, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Jalan UMS, 88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

³Biotechnology Research Institute, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Jalan UMS, 88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

Received: 28 August 2023/Accepted: 29 January 2024

Abstract

Rice wine is an alcoholic beverage produced through the fermentation of cereal grains, mainly rice, with microbial starters consisting of fungi and bacteria. However, the microbes in the rice wine starter cultures have never been documented comprehensively except for a few studies that looked into culturable microbes. Hence, their exact core microbiota contents especially those unculturable microbes remained unknown. Therefore, this research aimed to identify the fungal and bacterial communities in sasad through ribosomal amplicon-based next-generation sequencing and analysis that captured both the culturable and unculturable microbiota. The results showed that two fungal phyla (Mucoromycota and Ascomycota) with five genera (Mucor, Rhizopus, Saccharomycopsis, Wickerhamomyces, and Kodamaea) and two bacterial phyla (Proteobacteria and Firmicutes) with 10 genera (Kosakonia, Weissella, Enterobacter, Lactococcus, Pseudomonas, Bacillus, Chromobacterium, Paludibacterium, Enterococcus, and Gluconobacter) were identified as the core microbiota (relative abundance > 1.00%) in the sasad samples. Some of these microbes have been reported in other starter cultures, but some are unique to the sasad (Chromobacterium and Paludibacterium). Hence, this research provides the first comprehensive report on the microbes in sasad and provides important insights into the potential roles of core microbiota. These data may be used to facilitate the development of starter cultures with defined microbial compositions for the consistent production of safe and high-quality rice wines in the future.

Keywords: Microbiota; rice wine; starter culture

Abstrak

Wain beras ialah minuman beralkohol yang dihasilkan melalui penapaian bijirin, terutamanya beras, dengan mikrob pemula yang terdiri daripada kulat dan bakteria. Walau bagaimanapun, mikrob dalam ramuan pemula wain beras belum pernah didokumenkan secara menyeluruh kecuali beberapa kajian yang mengkaji mikrob yang boleh dikultur. Oleh itu, kandungan mikrobiota teras yang tepat terutamanya mikrob yang tidak boleh dikultur tidak diketahui. Oleh itu, penyelidikan ini bertujuan untuk mengenal pasti komuniti kulat dan bakteria dalam sasad melalui penjujukan dan analisis generasi akan datang berasaskan amplikon ribosom yang akan merangkumi kedua-dua mikrobiota yang boleh dikultur dan tidak boleh dikultur. Hasilnya menunjukkan bahawa dua filum kulat (Mucoromycota dan Ascomycota) dengan lima genus (Mucor, Rhizopus, Saccharomycopsis, Wickerhamomyces dan Kodamaea) dan dua filum bakteria (Proteobacteria dan Firmicutes) dengan 10 genus (Kosakonia, Weissella, Enterobacter, Lactococcus, Pseudomonas, Bacillus, Chromobacterium, Paludibacterium, Enterococcus dan Gluconobacter) telah dikenal pasti sebagai mikrobiota teras (kelimpahan relatif > 1.00%) dalam sampel sasad. Sesetengah mikrob ini telah dilaporkan dalam kultura pemula lain, tetapi terdapat beberapa yang unik untuk sasad (Chromobacterium dan Paludibacterium). Oleh itu, penyelidikan ini merupakan laporan komprehensif pertama tentang mikrob dalam sasad dan memberikan gambaran penting tentang potensi peranan mikrobiota teras. Data ini boleh digunakan untuk memudahkan pembangunan kultur pemula dengan komposisi mikrob yang ditentukan untuk pengeluaran wain beras yang selamat dan berkualiti tinggi secara konsisten pada masa hadapan.

Kata kunci: Kultur pemula; mikrobiota; wain beras

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*Corresponding author; email: chloefan@ums.edu.my