Microbial community structure, functional potential, probiotic signatures, and MAG reconstruction of fermented bamboo...

Fermented bamboo shoot (FBS) products are widely consumed traditional foods across the Northeast region (NER) of India, yet their microbiome structure, functional capacity, biosynthetic potential, and safety attributes remain insufficiently explored. Here, comparative shotgun metagenomics of ten traditional FBS products from six NER states was used to address these gaps integrating previously generated metagenomic data from Tripura with newly generated datasets from Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and Sikkim thereby bringing the total number of samples to 24. Taxonomic profiling revealed a predominance of lactic acid bacteria, primarily members of Lactiplantibacillus, Levilactobacillus, Lactobacillus, Lactococcus, and Pediococcus, with pronounced product- and region-specific community signatures. Functional annotation demonstrated predominance of genes involved in carbohydrate metabolism, stress response, quorum sensing, ABC transporters, vitamin biosynthesis, and energy metabolism, supporting strong probiotic-associated functional potential across FBS types. AntiSMASH analysis enabled the identification of diverse biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) responsible for the production of various secondary metabolites, including bacteriocins, non-ribosomal peptides, terpenes, and siderophores, with higher biosynthetic diversity observed in Mesu (Sikkim), Tuaithar (Manipur), Lung-Seij (Meghalaya), and Bastenga (Nagaland). Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) profiling revealed a generally low resistome burden, dominated by intrinsic resistance determinants, with FBS Sikkim and Tripura exhibiting the lowest AMR prevalence among all products. High-quality metagenome-assembled genomes affiliated with Lactiplantibacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus acetotolerans, and Pediococcus pentosaceus exhibited conserved probiotic traits, carbohydrate-active enzymes, biosynthetic pathways, and a limited presence of mobile genetic elements. Overall, the microbiome-based comparative analysis provides a framework for understanding the microbial community structure and functional potential across the NER, demonstrating broad probiotic potential and biosynthetic richness, with mesu samples from Sikkim showed a comparatively consistent distribution of functional pathways, biosynthetic gene clusters, and AMR-related features relative to the other FBS samples analysed.