Molecular analysis of the dominant lactic acid bacteria of chickpea liquid starters and doughs and propagation of chickpea sourdoughs with selected Weissella confusa

Fermented chickpea liquid is used as a leavening agent in chickpea bread production. In the present study, traditional chickpea liquid starter and dough samples were collected from bakeries in Turkey and microbiologically investigated. Culture-independent analysis for microbiota diversity, performed by MiSeq Illumina, identified Clostridium perfringens as major group in all samples, while Weissella spp. Dominated LAB community. A culture-dependent methodology was applied and 141 isolates were confirmed to be members of the LAB group based on 16s rRNA gene sequence analysis. In particular, 11 different LAB species were identified confirming the high frequency of isolation of weissellas, since Weissella confusa and Weissella cibaria constituted 47.8 and 12.4%, respectively, of total LAB isolated. The other species were Enterococcus faecium, Enterococcus lactis, Lactobacillus brevis, Lactobacillus plantarum, Leuconostoc mesenteroides, Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp. Dextranium, Pediococcus acidilactici, Pediococcus pentosaceus and Streptococcus lutetiensis. Due to high frequency of isolation, W. confusa strains were investigated at technological level and W. confusa RL1139 was used as mono-culture starter in the experimental chickpea sourdough production. Chemical and microbiological properties, as well as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of the chickpea liquid starters and doughs were subjected to a multivariate analysis. Control and W. confusa inoculated chickpea liquid starter and dough samples were close to each other in terms of some characteristics related to chemical, microbiological and VOCs profile, but the inoculated sourdough showed a higher generation of certain VOCs, like butanoic acid (81.52%) and ethyl acetate (8.15%) than control sourdough. This is important in order to maintain typical characteristics of the traditional chickpea dough, but at the same time improving the aroma profile. This work demonstrated that W. confusa RL1139 can be applied at large scale production level without compromising the typical characteristics of the final product.