Abstract
The emerging global importance of Korea’s alcoholic beverages
emphasizes the need for quality enhancement of nuruk,
a traditional Korean cereal starter that is used extensively in
traditional brewing. Apart from fungi and yeasts, bacteria
known to be ubiquitously present are also a part of the nuruk
ecosystem and are known to influence fermentation activity
by influencing fermentation favorable factors. In the current
study, bacterial diversity and temporal variations in the traditional
wheat-based nuruk, fermented at two representative
temperature conditions for 30 days, along with two commercial
wheat-based nuruk samples for comparison analysis were
evaluated using libraries of PCR amplicons and 454 pyrosequencing
targeting of the hypervariable regions V1 to V3
of the 16S rRNA gene. A total of 90,836 16S reads were analyzed
and assigned to a total of 314, 321, and 141 Operational
Taxonomic Units (OTUs) for nuruk A, B, and C, respectively.
Diversity parameters clearly indicated nuruk B to
be more diverse in terms of bacterial composition than nuruk
A. Taxonomic assignments indicated that nuruk A was dominated
by phylum Cyanobacteria, whereas nuruk B was
dominated by phylum Actinobacteria. For both nuruk A and
B, members of the phylum Firmicutes mostly converged into
the family Bacillaceae; these microorganisms might be present
in negligible numbers at the beginning but became significant
as the fermentation progressed. The commercial samples
were predominated by phylum Firmicutes, which is composed
of Lactobacillaceae and Leoconostocaceae. The findings
of this study provide new insights into understanding
the changes in bacterial community structure during traditional
nuruk starter production.
Citations
Citations to this article as recorded by

- Genomic and functional features of yeast species in Korean traditional fermented alcoholic beverage and soybean products
Da Min Jeong, Hyeon Jin Kim, Min-Seung Jeon, Su Jin Yoo, Hye Yun Moon, Eun-joo Jeon, Che Ok Jeon, Seong-il Eyun, Hyun Ah Kang
FEMS Yeast Research.2023;[Epub] CrossRef - Identification of the Predominant Species of Bacillus, Staphylococcus, and Lactic Acid Bacteria in Nuruk, a Korean Starter Culture
Saeyoung Seo, Do-Won Jeong, Jong-Hoon Lee
Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters.2023; 51(1): 93. CrossRef - Investigation of lactic acid bacterial profiles in commercial rice wine and their effect on metabolites during low-temperature storage
Jeongmin Cha, Kwang-Moon Cho, Sun Jae Kwon, Seong-Eun Park, Eun-Ju Kim, Seung-Ho Seo, Hong-Seok Son
Food Chemistry: X.2023; 17: 100552. CrossRef - Effects of sediment and temperature on the long-term aging process of rice wine: Microbial and metabolic insights
Daehyeon Kim, Seong-Eun Park, Eun-Ju Kim, Hyun-Woo Kim, Seung-Ho Seo, Tae Woong Whon, Seong Woon Roh, Hong-Seok Son
Food Research International.2023; 174: 113604. CrossRef - Effects of saccharification agents on the microbial and metabolic profiles of Korean rice wine (makgeolli)
Jeongmin Cha, Seong-Eun Park, Eun-Ju Kim, Seung-Ho Seo, Kwang-Moon Cho, Sun Jae Kwon, Mee-Hyun Lee, Hong-Seok Son
Food Research International.2023; 172: 113367. CrossRef - Analyses of microbial community and quality characteristics of
nuruk
So-Young Park, Seok-Tae Jeong, Chan Woo Kim, Sun-Il Yun, Ji-Eun Kang, Heui-Yun Kang, Bora Lim
Korean Journal of Food Preservation.2022; 29(1): 105. CrossRef - Microbial Diversity and Volatile Flavor Changes during Gayangju Fermentation, a Traditional Korean House Rice Wine
Young-Ran Song, Byeong-Uk Lim, Sang-Ho Baik
Foods.2022; 11(17): 2604. CrossRef - pH Changes Have a Profound Effect on Gene Expression, Hydrolytic Enzyme Production, and Dimorphism in Saccharomycopsis fibuligera
Mohamed El-Agamy Farh, Najib Abdellaoui, Jeong-Ah Seo
Frontiers in Microbiology.2021;[Epub] CrossRef - Research on the Probiotic Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae var. Boulardii-03 Derived from Traditional Nuruk
Eunjung Lee, Jae-Ho Kim, Jang-Eun Lee
Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition.2021; 50(12): 1392. CrossRef - Natural Occurrence of Aflatoxigenic Aspergillus Species and Aflatoxins in Traditional Korean Fermentation Starters, Meju and Nuruk
So Young Woo, Sang Yoo Lee, Fei Tian, A-Yeong Jeong, Cha Nee Yoo, Seung Yoon Kang, Hyang Sook Chun
Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety.2020; 35(5): 438. CrossRef - Lactobacilus nuruki sp. nov., isolated from Nuruk, a Korean fermentation starter
Jun Heo, Satomi Saitou, Tomohiko Tamura, Hayoung Cho, Ji-Seon Kim, Jae-Ho Joa, Jeong-Seon Kim, Soon-Wo Kwon, Soo-Jin Kim
International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology.2018; 68(10): 3273. CrossRef - Effects of initial moisture content of Korean traditional wheat-based fermentation starter nuruk on microbial abundance and diversity
Jyotiranjan Bal, Suk-Hyun Yun, Soo-Hwan Yeo, Jung-Mi Kim, Beom-Tae Kim, Dae-Hyuk Kim
Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology.2017; 101(5): 2093. CrossRef