Sugary kefir grains as the inoculum for developing a low sodium isotonic beverage.

The objective of this study was to apply for the first time sugary kefir to produce a new isotonic with low sodium. Additionally, the microbial community profile of grains and fermented kefir was evaluated through metataxonomics. The kefir grains were inoculated into filtered water containing 40 g L-1 sugar at 25 °C for 48 h. Grains and beverage samples were collected at 0, 24, and 48 h for DNA extraction. The grains were separated, and the beverage was used to prepare the isotonic. The isotonic consisted of kefir (85% v/v), pasteurized juice (15% v/v), sodium citrate (0.2 g L-1), sodium chloride (0.427 g L-1), maltodextrin (22 g L-1) and citric acid (0.7 g L-1). The physicochemical and microbiological parameters were performed on days 0, 7, 15, and 30. All isotonic obtained presented sodium content below the commercial control. The presence of lactic acid bacteria and yeasts in all periods evaluated demonstrated the viability of isotonic kefir. Through metataxonomy, the genus Ethanoligenens was described as dominant for the first time in sugary kefir. Furthermore, the microbial diversity in the beverage was higher than that observed in the grains. This study provided a new low sodium isotonic based on sugary kefir for the first time.

Phylogenomic characterization and pangenomic insights into the surfactin-producing bacteria Bacillus subtilis strain RI4914.

Bacillus subtilis is a versatile bacterial species able to produce surfactin, a lipopeptide biosurfactant. We carried out the phylogenomic characterization and pangenomic analyses using available B. subtilis complete genomes. Also, we report the whole genome of the biosurfactant-producing B. subtilis strain RI4914 that was isolated from effluent water from an oil exploration field. We applied a hybrid sequencing approach using both long- and short-read sequencing technologies to generate a highly accurate, single-chromosome genome. The pangenomics analysis of 153 complete genomes classified as B. subtilis retrieved from the NCBI shows an open pangenome composed of 28,511 accessory genes, which agrees with the high genetic plasticity of the species. Also, this analysis suggests that surfactin production is a common trait shared by members of this species since the srfA operon is highly conserved among the B. subtilis strains found in most of the assemblies available. Finally, increased surfactin production corroborates the higher srfAA gene expression in B. subtilis strain RI4914.

Metagenome assembled-genomes reveal similar functional profiles of CPR/Patescibacteria phyla in soils.

Soil microbiome is one of the most heterogeneous biological systems. State-of-the-art molecular approaches such as those based on single-amplified genomes (SAGs) and metagenome assembled-genomes (MAGs) are now improving our capacity for disentailing soil microbial-mediated processes. Here, we analysed publicly available datasets of soil microbial genomes and MAG's reconstructed from the Amazon's tropical soil (primary forest and pasture) and active layer of permafrost, aiming to evaluate their genome size. Our results suggest that the Candidate Phyla Radiation (CPR)/Patescibacteria phyla have genomes with an average size fourfold smaller than the mean identified in the RefSoil database, which lacks any representative of this phylum. Also, by analysing the potential metabolism of 888 soil microbial genomes, we show that CPR/Patescibacteria representatives share similar functional profiles, but different from other microbial phyla and are frequently neglected in the soil microbial surveys. Finally, we argue that the use of MAGs may be a better choice over SAGs to expand the soil microbial databases, like RefSoil.