(Fig. 2A). This was due to a retarded growth of yeast strains in much
the same way as most commercial soy sauce fermentation processes
occur. Interestingly, the analysis of bacterial populations by
DGGE showed significantly different patterns (Fig. 2B). As expected,
Bacillus spp. (bands 7e15) were the most predominant bacterial
group and this result was not affected by the salt concentration
during fermentation. However, Staphylococcus (bands 1, 2, 3, and 4)
and Enterococcus spp. (bands 5 and 6) were detected only in S8,
showing that the number and strength of the bands corresponding
to Staphylococcus spp. including Staphylococcus epidermidis and
Staphylococcus xylosus and Enterococcus spp. including Enterococcus
faecium increased as the fermentation progressed further. In addition,
the total bacterial enumeration results were almost identical
to the DGGE results, thereby showing relatively increased bacterial
counts by salt reduction (Table 3).