Brazilian cocoa microbiome

The spontaneous process of cocoa beans fermentation is not standardized, since the microorganisms that make up the fermentation are indigenous, inhabiting the environment outside of the cocoa beans. It is a complex process in which a microbial succession is observed throughout its execution, beginning with yeast colonization and maintained and terminated by lactic acid bacteria and acetic acid. In some fermentation, the quality of the fermented food was related to the presence and absence of strains expressing genes associated with the classic Quorum Sensing (QS) or Quorum Quenching (QQ) pathways, making it important to understand the dynamics of the fermentation process under the point of view of bacterial communication. In this work we apply metagenomics analysis to unravel the potential functional of the microbial cross-talk by QS and its possible role during the spontaneous process of cocoa fermentation.