Sprouting process affects the lactic acid bacteria and yeasts of cereal, pseudocereal and legume flours

The aim of this work was to investigate how sprouting process may affect the indigenous lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and yeasts of wheat, barley, quinoa, lentil and chickpea flours. LAB and yeasts inhabiting the raw and sprouted flours were described by culture-dependent and -independent approach. Based on community-level catabolic profiles, the sprouting process led to a strong increase of the Shannon's diversity and substrate richness indices. Compared to raw flours, the highest ability to consume carbohydrates, polymers, amines, carboxylic acid and amino acids sources was found for the microbial communities of wheat, chickpea and lentil sprouted flours. Except for LAB detected in quinoa, sprouting process caused significant (P < 0.05) changes in the cell density of LAB and yeasts. Compared to raw flours, all sprouted flours harboured a different microbiome and a higher number of LAB strains. Positive correlations (r > 0.70; FDR < 0.05) were found between cell density of LAB and yeasts with the time of sprouting process and the concentrations of free sugars content in flours. This study demonstrated that the sprouting process of wheat, barley, quinoa, lentil and chickpea grains modifies the microbial metabolic activities and composition of the lactic acid bacteria and yeasts of the resulting flours.