Chatthaphisuth Sanchart, Soottawat Benjakul, Onnicha Rattanaporn, Dietmar Haltrich, and Suppasil Maneerat

pp. 291 - 297

Abstract

Kung-Som is one of several Thai traditional fermented shrimp products, that is especially popular in the southern part
of Thailand. This is the first report to reveal the bacterial communities in the finished product of Kung-Som. Ten Kung-Som
samples were evaluated using the polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) methodology combined with appropriate primers to study the dynamics of the bacterial population. Two primer sets (V3; 341f(GC)-
518r and rpoB; rpoB1698f(GC)-rpoB2014r primers) were considered as a possible tool for the differentiation of bacteria and
compared with respect to their efficiency of 16S rDNA and rpoB gene amplification. PCR-DGGE analysis of both the V3-region
and rpoB amplicon was successfully applied to discriminate between lactic acid bacteria and Gram positive strains in the
bacterial communities of Kung-Som. In conclusion, the application of these two primer sets using PCR-DGGE techniques is
a useful tool for analyzing the bacterial diversity in Kung-Som. Moreover, these preliminary results provide useful information
for further isolation of desired bacterial strains that could be used as a starter culture in order to improve the quality of
Kung-Som.