Isolation and Molecular Identification of Lactic Acid Bacteria Using 16s rRNA Genes from Fermented Teff (Eragrostis tef (Zucc.)) Dough

Injera is sof fermented baked product, which is commonly prepared from tef (Eragrostis tef (Zucc.)) four and believed to be consumed on daily basis by two-thirds of Ethiopians. As it is a product of naturally fermented dough, the course of fermentation is done by consortia of microorganisms. Te study was aimed at isolating and identifying some dominant bacteria from fermenting tef (Eragrostis tef) dough. A total of 97 dough samples were collected from households, microenterprises, and hotels with diferent fermentation stage from Addis Ababa. Te bacterial isolates obtained from the fermenting tef dough samples were selected on the basis of their acid production potentials. A total of 24 purifed bacterial isolates were found to be Gram-positive (they are coccus and rod under microscope) and were good acid producers. Genomic DNA of bacterial isolates were extracted using Invisorb Spin DNA Extraction kit. 16S rRNA of bacterial isolates were amplifed using the bacteria universal primers (rD1 and fD1). Te amplifed product was sequenced at Genewiz, USA. Sequence analysis and comparison with the resources at the database were conducted to identify the isolated microbes into species and strain levels. Te bacterial isolates were identifed as Lactobacillus paracasei, Lactobacillus brevis, Enterococcus durans, Enterococcus hirae, Enterococcus avium, and Enterococcus faecium. All identifed lactic acid bacteria were able to produce acid at 12 h time of incubation. Tis study has confrmed the presence of diferent bacterial species in the fermenting tef dough and also supports the involvement of various groups of bacterial species in the course of the fermentation.