Culture-Independent Estimation of Lactic Acid Bacteria and Yeasts

The population balances inside microbial consortia are highly variable from one sourdough ecosystem to another. In general, growth rate and yield of microorganisms are governed by a multitude of ecological factors. Indeed, in-depth studies of the biodiversity of the microbiota of traditional sourdough products are interesting from an academic and industrial point of view. Since not all sourdough microorganisms are easily cultivated in common laboratory media, modern molecular approaches such as the omics methodologies may help to further unravel sourdough fermentation processes. The application of metagenetics confirmed the dominance of species belonging to genera of Leuconostoc, Weissella, and ex-Lactobacillus for lactic acid bacteria and Saccharomyces and Kazachstania for yeasts. Here, detailed culture-independent methods commonly used to study the sourdough microbiota are described.