Microbiomes of Kefir Grains From Regions of Historical Origin and Their Probiotic Potential

Abstract

Kefir has attracted interest in the scientific community due to its beneficial properties, such as: improving digestion, antimicrobial action, hypocholesterolemic, antihypertensive, and anti-inflammatory effects, control of plasma glucose levels, antioxidant, anticarcinogenic, and antiallergic activity. The comparative characteristics of the microbiomes of kefir grains (KG) obtained from the regions of their historical origin (Caucasus and China) is given. The diversity of their compositions was shown using classical microbiological and molecular genetic methods, including high-throughput sequencing of V4-region of bacterial 16S rRNA genes and the ITS1 region of the 18S-ITS1-5.8S-ITS2-28S complex of yeast rRNA. The species of the Lactobacillus genus are the most common of the bacterial cultures in kefir grains, while the most common of the yeast cultures is Pichia fermentans, as well as the rarer species of Yarrowia lipolytica and Galactomyces candidus.

Keywords

• kefir grains
• isolation
• identification
• lactobacteria
• yeast
• sequencing
• 16s rrna