The combination of high-throughput sequencing and LC-MS/MS reveals the mechanism of Staphylococcus inoculation on bacterial community succession and taste development during the processing of dry-cured bacon.

Abstract

To understand the mechanism of co-inoculation of Staphylococcus vitulinus and Staphylococcus xylosus (SX&SV) on taste quality of dry-cured bacon, physicochemical parameters, microbial community, metabolite compositions and taste attributes were investigated during the processing of dry-cured bacon with Staphylococcus inoculation; the potential correlation between core bacteria and metabolites was evaluated, and the metabolic pathway of key metabolites was further explored. The values of pH, water activity and adhesiveness were significantly lower in SX&SV, and more than 2.56-fold and 2.15-fold values in richness and overall acceptance were found in SX&SV bacon than in CK bacon. The overwhelming advantage of Staphylococcus was confirmed in SX&SV by HTS. Sixty-six metabolites were identified by LC-MS/MS, and oligopeptides, amino acid derivatives and organic acids were the key components. Pearson correlation demonstrated that the accumulation of oligopeptides, amino acid derivatives and organic acids were positively correlated with high abundance of Staphylococcus. The pathways of purine metabolism, glutathione metabolism and glutamate metabolism were mainly involved in developing the taste quality of SX&SV. The co-inoculation of Staphylococcus vitulinus and Staphylococcus xylosus enhanced the taste attributes of dry-cured bacon. This work provided the theoretical reference to regulate the taste quality of fermented meat products by starter cultures of Staphylococcus during the manufacture. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.