Evolution of bacterial consortia in spontaneously started rye sourdoughs during two months of daily propagation

The evolution of bacterial consortia was studied in six semi-solid rye sourdoughs during long-term backslopping at different temperatures. Each rye sourdough was started spontaneously in a laboratory (dough yield 200), propagated at either 20°C or 30°C, and renewed daily at an inoculation rate of 1∶10 for 56 days. The changes in bacterial diversity over time were followed by both DGGE coupled with partial 16S rRNA gene sequencing and pyrosequencing of bar-coded 16S rRNA gene amplicons. Four species from the genus Lactobacillus (brevis, crustorum, plantarum, and paralimentarius) were detected in different combinations in all sourdoughs after 56 propagation cycles. Facultative heterofermentative lactic acid bacteria dominated in sourdoughs fermented at 30°C, while both obligate and facultative heterofermentative LAB were found to dominate in sourdoughs fermented at 20°C. After 56 propagation cycles, Kazachstania unispora (formerly Saccharomyces unisporus) was identified as the only yeast species that dominated in sourdoughs fermented at 20°C, while different combinations of strains from four yeast species (Kazachstania unispora, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Candida krusei and Candida glabrata) were detected in sourdoughs propagated at 30°C. The evolution of bacterial communities in sourdoughs fermented at the same temperature did not follow the same time course and changes in the composition of dominant and subdominant bacterial communities occurred even after six weeks of backslopping.