Microbial Diversity and Interaction Specificity in Kombucha Tea Fermentations.
Landis, Elizabeth A.
Fogarty, Emily.
Edwards, John C.
Popa, Otilia.
Eren, A. Murat.
Wolfe, Benjamin E.
2022
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Despite the popularity of kombucha tea, the distribution of different microbes across kombucha ferments and how those microbes interact within com- munities are not well characterized. Using metagenomics, comparative genomics, synthetic community experiments, and metabolomics, we determined the taxonomic, ecological, and functional diversity of 23 distinct kombuchas from across the United States. ... read moreShotgun metagenomic sequencing demonstrated that the bacterium Komagataeibacter rhaeticus and the yeast Brettanomyces bruxellensis were the most common microbes in the sampled kombucha communities. To determine the specificity of bacterium-yeast interactions, we experimentally quantified microbial interactions within kombucha biofilms by measuring densities of interacting species and biofilm production. In pairwise combinations of bacteria and yeast, B. bruxellensis and individual strains of Komagataeibacter spp. were sufficient to form kombucha fermentations with robust biofilms, but Zygosaccharomyces bisporus, another yeast found in kombucha, did not stimulate bacteria to produce biofilms. Profiling the spent media of both yeast species using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy suggested that the enhanced ability of B. bruxellensis to ferment and produce key metabolites in sucrose-sweetened tea may explain why it stimulates biofilm formation. Comparative genomics demonstrated that Komagataeibacter spp. with .99% genomic similarity can still have dramatic differences in biofilm production, with strong producers yielding five times more biofilm than the weakest producers.
Keywords: Brettanomyces, Komagataeibacter, acetic acid bacteria, fermentation, kombucha, microbiome, yeast.
Funding for open access publishing provided by the Tufts Faculty Research Awards Committee (FRAC)read less - Landis, E. A., Fogarty, E., Edwards, J. C., Popa, O., Eren, A. M., & Wolfe, B. E. (2022). Microbial diversity and interaction specificity in kombucha tea fermentations. mSystems, 7(3), e00157-22. https://doi.org/10.1128/msystems.00157-22
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- h415ps098
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- DOI:
- https://doi.org/10.1128/msystems.00157-22
