Investigation of the microbiota associated with ungerminated and germinated Norwegian barley cultivars with focus on lactic acid bacteria

The microbial community of ungerminated and germinated barley grains from three different cultivars grown at four different locations in Norway was investigated by culture dependent and culture independent methods. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) was focused in this study and was isolated from germinated barley. The number of LAB ranged between 2.8 and 4.6 log cfu/g in ungerminated grains and between 4.9 and 6.3 log cfu/g in germinated grains. In total 66 out of 190 isolates were Gram+, catalase-negative and presumptive LAB. The LAB isolates were by 16S rRNA sequencing identified to be Carnobacterium maltaromaticum (6), Lactococcus lactis (2), Enterococcus sp. (1) and Leuconostoc sp. (57). Germination significantly influenced the bacterial composition. Regarding the different cultivars and growth places no significant difference in bacterial composition was seen. The most abundant bacterial genus was Pantoea (18.5% of the total sequences), followed by Rhizobium (10.1%) and Sphingomonas (9.9%). Fungal composition was significantly influenced by the germination process and the cultivation place, but no significant difference in fungal composition was detected between the 3 cultivars. The most abundant fungal genera were Cryptococcus (43.8% of all the sequences), Cladosporium (8.2%), Pyrenophora (7.4%) and Vagicola (6.3%). This study revealed knowledge of barley grain associated microbes of Norwegian barley that can be useful to control the malt quality. Germination affected both bacterial and fungal microbiota composition. No difference in bacterial microbiota composition was seen regarding cultivars and cultivation place, however, the fungal microbiota composition was significantly influenced by the cultivation place. Differences in fungal community of ungerminated and germinated barley samples of different geographical locations were more pronounced than differences in bacterial communities.