ABSTRACT
Budu is a Malaysian fermented anchovy sauce produced by immersing small fishes into brine solution for 6 to 18 months. Fermentation of the anchovy sauce is catalyzed by microbial enzymes, but little is known about the microbial community in Budu. A better understanding of the Budu microbiota is necessary to better control the quality, consistency and biological safety of this fermentation product. In this study, we sampled 20 bottles of Budu produced by 7 different manufacturers and analyzed their microbiota based on V3-V4 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, at the time of opening as well as 3- and 7-months post-opening. In most samples, Tetragenococcus appears to be the most prevalent genus detected making up an average of 38.77 % relative abundance per sample (median = 19.56%, min = 0%, max = 98.62%). Furthermore, we also detected possible spoilage microbial genera such as Xanthomonas, Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas, Halanaerobium, and Psychrobacter. The microbial composition of majority of samples appears to be relatively stable even after seven months of bottle opening and storage at room temperature. Samples from two brands however showed a sudden increase in the number of reads belonging to the genus Chromobacterium in the 7th month.
Footnotes
I made some changes on typos (e.g. Figure ~ to Figure 1), grammar and slight structural changes. Revised Figure 6 too.