The composition of the human microbiome varies considerably in diversity and density across communities as a function of the foods we eat and the places we live. While all foods contain microbes, humans directly shape this microbial ecology through fermentation. Fermented foods are produced from microbial reactions that depend on local environmental conditions, fermentation practices, and the manner in which foods are prepared and consumed. These interactions are of special interest to ethnobiologists because they link investigations of how people shape and know the world around them to local knowledge, food traditions, local flora, and microbial taxa. In this manuscript, we report on data collected at a fermentation revivalist workshop in Tennessee. To ask how fermentation traditions are learned and influence macro and micro ecologies, we conducted interviews with eleven people and participated in a four-day craft fermentation workshop. We also collected 46 fermented food products and 46 stool samples from workshop participants eating those fermented foods. We identified ten major themes comprised of 29 sub-themes drawn from 326 marked codes in the transcripts. In combination, this analysis allowed us to summarize key experiences with fermentation, particularly those related to a sense of authenticity, place, health, and the discovery of tactile work. From the 605 amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) shared between food and fecal samples, we identified 25 candidate ASVs that are suspected to have been transmitted from fermented food samples to the gut microbiomes of the workshop participants. Our results indicate that many of the foods prepared and consumed during the workshop were rich sources of probiotic microbes. By combining these qualitative social and quantitative microbiological data, we suggest that variation in culturally informed fermentation practices introduces variation in bacterial flora even among very similar foods, and that these food products can influence gut microbial ecology.

中文翻译：

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关于泡菜：发酵食品与人类肠道微生物组之间的生物学和社会文化联系

人类微生物组的组成在不同社区的多样性和密度上有很大差异，这取决于我们吃的食物和我们居住的地方。虽然所有食物都含有微生物，但人类通过发酵直接塑造了这种微生物生态。发酵食品是由微生物反应产生的，微生物反应取决于当地的环境条件、发酵实践以及食物的制备和食用方式。这些相互作用对民族生物学家特别感兴趣，因为它们将人们如何塑造和了解周围世界的调查与当地知识、食物传统、当地植物群和微生物分类群联系起来。在这份手稿中，我们报告了在田纳西州发酵复兴研讨会上收集的数据。询问发酵传统是如何学习并影响宏观和微观生态的，我们采访了 11 个人，并参加了为期四天的手工发酵工作坊。我们还从食用这些发酵食品的研讨会参与者那里收集了 46 种发酵食品和 46 份粪便样本。我们确定了 10 个主要主题，包括从成绩单中的 326 个标记代码中提取的 29 个子主题。结合起来，这种分析使我们能够总结发酵的关键经验，特别是那些与真实感、地方、健康和触觉工作发现相关的经验。从食物和粪便样本之间共享的 605 个扩增子序列变体 (ASV) 中，我们确定了 25 个候选 ASV，它们怀疑已从发酵食物样本传播到研讨会参与者的肠道微生物组。我们的结果表明，在研讨会期间准备和食用的许多食物都是益生菌微生物的丰富来源。通过结合这些定性的社会和定量微生物数据，我们建议，即使在非常相似的食物中，文化发酵实践的变化也会导致细菌菌群的变化，并且这些食品会影响肠道微生物生态。