Microbial species diversity along the kaak process

Metabarcoding analysis was performed on 113 samples collected from 26 bakeries across Lebanon during kaak production steps, a traditional Lebanese baked product, based on the fermentation of chickpea-soaked water as a leavening agent. A two-step PCR amplification protocol was employed. The first PCR (PCR1) targeted the bacterial 16S rRNA V3–V4 region (primers 343F and 784R) or the fungal ITS1 region (primers ITS1F and ITS2). A second PCR was conducted to incorporate Illumina dual-indexed adapters. Sequencing was carried out on an Illumina MiSeq platform using paired-end reads (2?×?300?bp)