Bacteria associated to human saliva are major microbial components of Ecuadorian indigenous beers (chicha)
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Anthropology, Microbiology, Infectious Diseases
- Keywords
- Lactic acid bacteria, indigenous beer, fermentation, chicha, microbiota, artisanal fermented beverages, Streptococcus salivarius, Streptococcus mutans, lactic acid bacteria, fermented cassava, Ecuador, chewed indigenous beer, cassava, saliva
- Copyright
- © 2016 Freire et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2016. Bacteria associated to human saliva are major microbial components of Ecuadorian indigenous beers (chicha) PeerJ Preprints 4:e1520v2 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.1520v2
Abstract
Indigenous beers (chicha) are part of the indigenous culture in Ecuador. The fermentation process of these beers relay probably on microorganisms from: fermenting substrates, environment and human microbiota. We analyzed the microbiota of artisanal beers (including a type of beer produced after chewing boiled cassava) using bacterial culture and 16S-based tag-encoded FLX amplicon pyrosequencing (bTEFAP). Surprisingly, we found that Streptococcus salivarius and Streptococcus mutans (part of the human oral microbiota) where among the most abundant bacteria in chewed cassava and in non-chewed cassava beers. We also demonstrated that S. salivarius and S. mutans (isolated from these beers) could proliferate in cassava mush. Lactobacillus sp. was predominantly present in most types of Ecuadorian chicha.
Author Comment
This version contains additional data regarding the high throughput sequencing procedures. The authors have expanded the discussion section.