Metabolite Profiling and Microbial Community of Traditional Meju Show Primary and Secondary Metabolite Differences Correlated with Antioxidant Activities.
Meju, a type of fermented soybean paste, is used as a starter in the preparation of various Korean traditional soybean-based foods. In this study, we performed Illumina-MiSeq paired-end sequencing for microbial communities and mass spectrometry analysis for metabolite profiling to investigate the differences between 11 traditional meju products from different regions across Korea. Even though the bacterial and fungal communities showed remarkable variety, major genera including Bacillus, Enterococcus, Variovorax, Pediococcus, Weissella, and Aspergillus were detected in every sample of meju. The metabolite profile patterns of the 11 samples were clustered into two main groups: group I (M1-5) and group II (M6-11). The metabolite analysis indicated a relatively higher amino acid content in group I, while group II exhibited higher isoflavone, soyasaponin, and lysophospholipid contents. The bioactivity analysis proved that the ABTS (2,2'-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid)) radical-scavenging activity was higher in group II and the FRAP (ferric reducing antioxidant power) activity was higher in group I. The correlation analysis revealed that the ABTS activity was isoflavonoid, lipid, and soyasaponin related, whereas the FRAP activity was amino acid and flavonoid related. These results suggest that the antioxidant activities of meju are critically influenced by the microbiome and metabolite dynamics.
['Song|Da Hye|DH|', 'Chun|Byung Hee|BH|', 'Lee|Sunmin|S|', 'Reddy|Chagam Koteswara|CK|', 'Jeon|Che Ok|CO|', 'Lee|Choong Hwan|CH|']
D000596:Amino Acids D000975:Antioxidants D001407:Bacillus D001419:Bacteria D005285:Fermentation D005419:Flavonoids D005658:Fungi D007529:Isoflavones D008246:Lysophospholipids D013058:Mass Spectrometry D053858:Metabolic Networks and Pathways D064307:Microbiota D056910:Republic of Korea D012503:Saponins D045730:Soy Foods D013025:Soybeans
microbial community antioxidant activity Fermented soybean paste metabolomics