Decoding artisan sourdoughs: The interplay of microorganisms, metabolites, and production parameters

Backslopped sourdoughs represent complex microbial ecosystems traditionally characterised by a stable coexistence of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and yeasts. However, knowledge about the underlying parameters is limited. This study employed a multiphasic approach - combining sourdough metadata, culture-dependent techniques, amplicon-based metabarcoding, and metabolomics - to analyse 109 sourdoughs collected via a citizen science initiative in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and Spain. Whereas the LAB and yeast species diversity largely aligned with previous sourdough analyses, three species previously unknown to the sourdough environment were found, namely, Fructilactobacillus vespulae, Geotrichum pandrosion, and Lachancea thermotolerans. Furthermore, this study provided a large-scale characterisation of acetic acid bacteria (AAB) in sourdough. AAB were found in up to 80.7% of the samples examined, with Acetobacter cerevisiae identified as a core species and 13 AAB species reported in sourdough for the first time. Integrated analysis revealed a complexity in sourdough that cannot be described by a single parameter, despite some trends being present. Metabolite profiling further underscored these complexities and suggested that erythritol production may be more widespread among LAB species than previously reported, specifically correlating with Levilactobacillus brevis and Lactiplantibacillus plantarum. These results emphasized that the sourdough ecosystem remains a reservoir of untapped biodiversity and highlighted the necessity of multi-angle microbiological analyses to capture the interplay between artisan practices and microbial community dynamics.