A GC–MS based metabolic profiling of fermented tomato by lactic acid bacteria

Abstract

Abstract A GC/MS-based metabolite profiling was performed to investigate metabolic differences of fermented tomatoes according to the inoculation of different LAB strains. PCA score plot derived from 2554 signal features of GC–MS data and PCA biplot derived from 18 identified metabolites showed clear separation into three groups. Citric acid and malic acid were found to affect groups clustered with Lactobacillus fermentum (LF), Bifidobacterium longum (BL), and Pediococcus pentosaceus (PP) whereas lactic acid, succinic acid, and fructose were related to Lactobacillus plantarum (LP) and Leuconostoc mesenteroid (LM) groups. Meanwhile, Lactobacillus brevis (LB) was associated with erythritol. Aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis and metabolism of cysteine and methionine were identified as metabolic pathways affected by the use of different LAB groups (LF, BL, and PP vs. LB groups). This study highlights the applicability of metabolic profiling for understanding fermentative characteristics of LAB strains.

Keywords

• Fermentation
• GC–MS
• Lactic acid bacteria
• Metabolomics
• Tomato