Multiomics provides insights into the succession of microbiota and metabolite during plant leaf fermentation

The quality of fermented plant products is closely related to microbial metabolism. Here, the associations of bacterial communities, metabolites, and functional genes were explored using multi-omics techniques based on plant leaf fermentation systems. The results showed significant changes in the structure of the microbial community, with a significant decrease in Firmicutes and a significant increase in Proteobacteria. In addition, the concentration of metabolites with antibacterial, antioxidant and aroma properties increased significantly, enhancing the quality of the fermented plant leaves. Integrated macrogenomic and metabolomic analyses indicated that amino acid metabolism could be key metabolic pathway affecting fermentation quality. Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Firmicutes were actively involved in tyrosine metabolism (ko00350) and phenylalanine metabolism (ko00360), and are presumed to be the major groups responsible for synthesizing growth and flavor compounds. This study emphasized the important role of microorganisms in the changes of metabolites during the fermentation of plant leaves.