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. 2019 May 10;14(5):e0215658.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0215658. eCollection 2019.

Bacterial community dynamics in lait caillé, a traditional product of spontaneous fermentation from Senegal

Anneloes E Groenenboom  1   2 , Megan E Parker  3 , Anne de Vries  3 , Suzette de Groot  1 , Stephanie Zobrist  3 , Kimberly Mansen  3 , Peiman Milani  3 , Remco Kort  4   5   6   7 , Eddy J Smid  2 , Sijmen E Schoustra  1   8
Affiliations

Bacterial community dynamics in lait caillé, a traditional product of spontaneous fermentation from Senegal

Anneloes E Groenenboom et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Spontaneously fermented food products contain a complex, natural microbial community with potential probiotic activity. The addition of a health-promoting, probiotic bacterium to these products ensures the delivery of that probiotic activity to consumers. Here, we assess the microbial community of a traditional Senegalese milk product produced by spontaneous fermentation, called lait caillé. We produced the lait caillé in a traditional way and added a probiotic starter containing Lactobacillus rhamnosus yoba 2012 to the traditional process. We found various species that are known for their ability to ferment milk, including species from the genera Lactobacillus, Acetobacter, Lactococcus, and Streptococcus. Our results show that the addition of L. rhamnosus to the inoculum, can result in detectable levels of this strain in the final product, ranging between 0.2 and 1 percent of the total bacterial population. Subsequent rounds of fermentation using passive back-slopping without the addition of new L. rhamnosus led to a loss of this strain from the community of fermenting bacteria. Our results suggest that the addition of probiotic strains at every fermentation cycle can enrich the existing complex communities of traditionally fermented lait caillé while traditional bacterial strains remain dominant in the bacterial communities.

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Conflict of interest statement

RK is founder of the Yoba for Life foundation (2009), a non-profit organization, accredited by the Dutch Tax Authorities as a Public Benevolent Institution (PBI), which aims to promote local production and consumption of fermented products in Africa. African fermented products made with the Yoba starter culture are not marketed by the foundation as such, but the Yoba for Life foundation stimulates local production and ownership, allowing income-generating activities for African small-scale entrepreneurs in the food sector. The Yoba for Life foundation distributes and sells ready-to-use sachets with dried bacterial starter cultures at cost price, through a network of partners and volunteers to facilitate the local production of dairy and cereal-based products by controlled bacterial fermentation. The Yoba starter culture contains L. rhamnosus yoba 2012, which is the generic variant of L. rhamnosus GG. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Bacterial composition of biofilm samples of all lahals upon arrival at the laboratory.
Different colors indicate different genera and can consist of different species and different OTUs. The ten genera with highest abundance are indicated in the legend. The aim of the figure is to show the diversity found in the microbial communities of lait caillé in terms of genus and species variation. For specific abundances of species and OTU, please refer to the sequencing data provided with this publication. Lahal numbers are used consistently throughout the experiments. Locations indicate the origin of the lahals.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Hierarchical clustering of bacterial communities from lahal surface and lait caillé.
Lahal surface samples as well as lait caillé samples of lahal 2,3,4,6, and 7 are clustered using Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean based on beta-diversity of the bacterial communities.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Community composition of bacterial species in lait caillé of lahals 2, 4, and 7 over time.
These lahals were used for fermentation by only adding sterile milk. Data points of lahal 4 and 7 are not shown as there were other ingredients added in these fermentation. Different colors indicate different species and can consist of multiple OTUs. Vertical axes indicates percentage of total reads within the sample. The aim of the figure is to show the diversity found in the microbial communities of lait caillé in terms of genus and species variation. For specific abundances of species and OTU, please refer to the sequencing data provided with this publication.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Fraction of S. thermophilus and L. rhamnosus in total microbial community in lait caillé.
Yoba: Yoba starter culture addition in lahal 3, 6 and 7 at time points 1 and 7. Millet: Yoba starter culture and millet porridge addition in lahal 2 and 8 at time points 1 and 7 and addition of millet porridge at all 12 time points. The striped lines show concentration of S. thermophilus (orange) and L rhamnosus Yoba (blue) in the Yoba yogurt (produced in standard sterile conditions). The dotted line shows L. rhamnosus Yoba levels found in controls. * indicates samples where invader levels were below the detection limit. Standard error is indicated with error bars.
Fig 5
Fig 5. Microbial diversity in lait caillé during and after the addition of the Yoba starter culture.
Average Shannon index of lahals inoculated with Yoba (lahals 3, 6, and 7) and lahals inoculated with Yoba starter culture in combination with millet porridge (lahals 2 and 8). Error bars indicate standard deviation. Yoba starter culture is added to all lahals at fermentation round 1 and 7, millet was added to lahals 2 and 8 at all fermentation rounds (fermentations rounds 3,4,5,9,10,11, and 13 up to 22 were not measured).
Fig 6
Fig 6. Community composition of the bacterial species in lait caillé of lahal 2, 3, 6, 7, and 8 during the invasion experiment with Yoba starter culture.
Numbers indicate fermentation rounds. Vertical axes indicates percentage of total reads within the sample. The thirteen species with highest abundance are indicated in the legend. The aim of the figure is to show the diversity found in the microbial communities of lait caillé in terms of genus and species variation. For specific abundances of species and OTU, please refer to the sequencing data provided with this publication.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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