Microbial Composition of SCOBY Starter Cultures Used by Commercial Kombucha Brewers in North America.

ABSTRACT: Kombucha fermentation is initiated by transferring a solid-phase cellulosic pellicle into sweetened tea and allowing the microbes that it contains to initiate the fermentation. This pellicle, commonly referred to as a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY), floats to the surface of the fermenting tea and represents an interphase environment, where embedded microbes gain access to oxygen as well as nutrients in the tea. To date, various yeast and bacteria have been reported to exist within the SCOBY, with little consensus as to which species are essential and which are incidental to Kombucha production. In this study, we used high-throughput sequencing approaches to evaluate spatial homogeneity within a single commercial SCOBY and taxonomic diversity across a large number (n

SUBMITTER: Harrison K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8156240 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature