Dynamics of microbial populations and metabolites of fermenting saps throughout tapping process of ron and oil palm trees in Côte d'Ivoire

Tapping into Palm Sap: Insights into extraction practices, quality profiles, fermentation chemistry, and preservation techniques

The quality profile, extraction yield, and fermentation chemistry of palm sap depend on various factors such as extraction technique, weather conditions, and preservation methods. This review aims to provide a detailed overview of palm sap extraction techniques and the methods for its preservation. The compositional analysis of palm sap, including physical and chemical parameters such as sugar content, acidity, and mineral composition, is discussed thoroughly. The role of microorganisms in fermentation and the effects of various influencing factors are also critically examined. Additionally, this review evaluates different preservation methods, including thermal processes, refrigeration, and electrical techniques, highlighting their effectiveness in extending the shelf life of palm sap. The review further explores the emerging impact of nanotechnology on palm sap preservation, offering insights into the latest industry challenges, developments, and future prospects. By presenting these findings, this review aims to enhance the scientific understanding of palm sap and stimulate additional research and innovation in the field, paving the way for improved production practices and product quality.

A Comprehensive View of Food Microbiota: Introducing FoodMicrobionet v5

Amplicon-targeted metagenomics is now the standard approach for the study of the composition and dynamics of food microbial communities. Hundreds of papers on this subject have been published in scientific journals and the information is dispersed in a variety of sources, while raw sequences and their metadata are available in public repositories for some, but not all, of the published studies. A limited number of web resources and databases allow scientists to access this wealth of information but their level of annotation on studies and samples varies. Here, we report on the release of FoodMicrobionet v5, a comprehensive database of metataxonomic studies on bacterial and fungal communities of foods. The current version of the database includes 251 published studies (11 focusing on fungal microbiota, 230 on bacterial microbiota, and 10 providing data for both bacterial and fungal microbiota) and 14,035 samples with data on bacteria and 1114 samples with data on fungi. The new structure of the database is compatible with interactive apps and scripts developed for previous versions and allows scientists, R&D personnel in industries and regulators to access a wealth of information on food microbial communities.

Metagenomics and metabolomics of Toddy, an Indian fermented date palm beverage

Toddy is a popular fermented palm beverage of India. No scientific information on shotgun metagenomics and metabolomics are available on toddy of India till date. Hence, we choose the fermented date palm beverage, locally called khejur toddy, of West Bengal and Jharkhand states of India, to profile microbial community, their targeted and untargeted metabolites to study the putative bio-functional genes corresponding to regulatory metabolic pathways. Shotgun-based metataxonomic analyses revealed the existence of all domains where bacteria were the most abundant domain (94.48%) followed by eukaryotes (3.38%), viruses (1.53%) and archaea (0.61%). Overall, 54 phyla, 363 families, 1087 genera and 1885 species were observed and identified. Bacillota (49.3%) was the most abundant bacterial phylum. At species level, several species of bacteria and yeasts were detected in toddy samples which included Leuconostoc mesenteroides,Leuconostoc citreum,Lactobacillus helveticus,Lactiplantibacillus plantarum,Lactococcus lactis, Acetobacter malorum, Gluconobacter japonicus, Gluconacetobacter liquefaciens, Fructobacillus durionis, Zymomonas mobilis and yeastsSaccharomyces cerevisiae, Hanseniaspora uvarumandHanseniaspora guilliermondii. Toddy metagenome was also compared with metagenome of pulque, the Mexican fermented fresh sap ofAgave, which was retrieved from NCBI database, and also with metagenomic data of some amplicon-based previous studies on toddy and African fermented palm drink for similarity, dissimilarity and uniqueness among them. Predictive biosynthesis of ethanol, acetic acid, butanoate, linalool, staurosporine, prodigiosin, folic acid, riboflavin, etc. were annotated by KEGG/COG database. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) analysis detected 23 arrays (average length 23.69 bp ± 4.28). Comprehensive Antibiotic Resistance Database (CARD) analysis did not show the presence of any momentous antibiotic resistance gene among the major microbial members. Metabolomics analysis detected many primary and secondary metabolites. We believe this is the first report on complete shotgun metagenomics, and metabolomics of fermented palm drink of India as well as Eastern India.