Microbial ecology, biochemical and nutritional features in sprouted composite type I sourdough made of wheat and blend flours

Germination is a biotechnological process helpful in obtaining new plants from grains. We tested the impact of processing condition (sprouting and dough yield) and flour composition on type I sourdoughs biochemical and nutritional parameters we here used four flour matrices and precisely: i) refined commercial wheat flour, ii) sprouted and iii) non-sprouted whole wheat flour and iv) a blend composed of sprouted whole wheat and sprouted lentils. We here compared a set of 24 samples based on different group stratifications including three different sampling times (starting, after 24h and at the 10th refreshment). Moreover, we inspected the microbiota and its relative taxa abundance by 16S rRNA target sequencing and qPCR absolute quantification. Our result highlighted how the sprouted process together with the dough yield influenced key substrate like raffinose and lead to a change of taxa composition as evinced for the increased relative abundances of Pediococcus genus. Other key taxa in the microbiota were shaped by tested conditions and the alpha and beta diversity evidenced how matrix impact the intergroup clustering. The presented results shed new light on the increased properties and the related health promoting effects of type I sourdough obtained with the sprouting process.