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Traditional Chinese fermented vegetables are a type of brine-salted fermented vegetable product. During the spontaneous fermentation, various compounds are produced, degraded, and converted, influencing the quality of the fermented pickle. To ascertain the effect of different containers on the fermentation process of the pickles, this study investigated the bacterial diversity and the chemical composition characteristics of the pickle (radish) fermented in commonly used containers including glass jars (GL), porcelain jars (PO), and plastic jars (PL). The correlation between chemical compounds and microbial community was further analyzed. The changes in pH values suggested that PL may facilitate the quickest fermentation of the pickles, while the process in PO progressed at the lowest rate. The PL brine samples contained higher levels of lactic acid and threonine, while more abundant volatile chemical compounds were evident in PO. The container materials had no significant influence on the microbial structure, wherein Lactobacillus was the absolute dominant genus in all containers. But container material did have an effect on the abundance of specific genus, such as Lactococcus and Pediococcus. The correlation between these major genera was also analyzed and gene function prediction indicated that the top three pathways were: carbohydrate metabolism, amino acid metabolism, and energy metabolism. Lactobacillus negatively correlated with methionine, tyrosine, lysine, and arginine, but positively correlated with ammonia, and lactic acid and acetic acid both just correlated with Pediococcus. This study provides new insights into the microbiota succession and chemical compounds involved in the vegetable fermentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The community succession of microbes inhabited in the fermenting lees of Luzhou-flavor liquor was investigated based on small-subunit rRNA culture independent method. All sequences recovered from fermenting lees respectively fell into the genera of Lactobacillus, Streptococcus, Bacillus, Staphylococcus, Clostridium, Pelobacter, Actobacter, Serratia, Burkholderia, Rhodoccous, Corynebacterium, Arthrobacter, Microbacterium, Curtobacterium, Leptotrichia, Methanocuuleus, Saccharomyces, Zygosaccharomyces, Saccharomycopsis, Pichia, Talaromyces, Aspergillus, Eurotium, Fomitopsis and Trichosporon. The fungal Pichia, Saccharomycopsis and Talaromyces were most abundant in the lees fermented for 1 day, the fungal Eurotium and the bacteria Burkholderia, Streptococcus and Lactobacillus were dominant in the lees fermented for 7 days, only the bacteria Lactobacillus, Burkholderia were prevalent in the lees fermented for 60 days. Most genera almost existed in the fermenting lees, while their distributions were significantly different in 1, 7 and 60 days fermented lees. The prokaryotic community similarity coefficient was from 0.5000 to 0.5455 and followed to 0.1523, and that of eukaryotic community was from 0.5466 to 0.5259 and to 0.3750 when compared at species level. These results suggested that many microbes in lees have community successions associated with fermenting and that such successions maybe contribute the fermentation process of Luzhou-flavor liquor and is main reasons that the characteristic flavor factors are produced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pickles are typical traditional Chinese fermented vegetables. Complex microbiota interacts throughout the fermentation and deterioration process. Minimal studies are available involving quorum sensing (QS) signaling in pickles. This study investigated the changes in the general pickle properties and microbial diversity at 4 d, 31 d, and 79 d. The QS signaling activity of various strains isolated at these key time points was screened using biosensor strains, while the types of signal molecules were further identified using UHPLC/QTOF-MS/MS. At 4 d, Lactobacillus represented the dominant genus, while Lactobacillus plantarum was identified as the bacteria with AI-2-producing ability. At 31 d, the dominant genus was also Lactobacillus , while the relative abundance of Pediococcus displayed a distinct increase. At this time point, L. plantarum represented the AI-2-producing bacteria, followed by Lactobacillus brevis , Pediococcus sp., Enterobacter sp., and Bacillus megaterium. At 79 d, Lactobacillus was displaced by Enterobacter as the dominant microorganisms, while the AI-2-producing bacteria were identified as L. plantarum , Enterobacter sp., B. megaterium , Klebsiella sp., and Staphylococcus sp. Moreover, AHL activity was only present in isolates from the 79-d brine and was identified as C4-HSL and C6-HSL. In addition, the luxS gene was amplified via cDNA reversely transcription from the total RNA extracted from the brine at all three time points using the L. plantarum luxS primers. The AHL-related genes were only amplified in the RNA of 79-d brine samples using Klebsiella pneumoniae - and Bacillus cereus -related primers. This study presented theoretical references for QS during pickle fermentation and deterioration. • The pickle odors were clearly assembled and distinguished at 4 d, 31 d and 79 d. • The top three genera generally included Lactobacillus , Enterobacter and Pediococcus. • Bacteria, especially LAB, communicated via AI-2 during the pickle fermentation. • Enterobacter communicated via AI-2 combined with AHLs during the pickle spoilage. • The C4-HSL and C6-HSL produced by Enterobacter were detected via UHPLC/QTOF-MS/MS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]