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April 8, 2024  |  Metagenomics

Stimulated saliva has a distinct composition that influences release of volatiles from wine

Authors: Xinwei Ruan, Yipeng Chen, Aafreen Chauhan, Kate Howell

Aroma perception plays an important role in wine preference and evaluation and varies between groups of wine consumers. Saliva influences the release of aroma in the oral cavity. The composition of human saliva varies depending on stimulation; however, the compositional differences of stimulated and unstimulated saliva and their influences on aroma release have not been evaluated. In this study, we recruited healthy adults, of which 15 were Australian and 15 Chinese. Three types of saliva were collected from each participant: before, during, and after salivary stimulation. The collected salivary samples were characterised by flow rate, total protein concentration, esterase activity and microbiome composition by full-length 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The saliva samples were mixed with wine to investigate the differences in released volatiles by headspace solid-phase microextraction gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS). Differences in salivary composition and specific wine volatiles were found between Australian and Chinese participants, and amongst the three stimulation stages. Differential species were identified and significant correlations between the relative abundance of 3 bacterial species and 10 wine volatiles were observed. Our results confirm the influence of host factors and stimulation on salivary composition. Understanding the interactions of salivary components, especially salivary bacteria, on the release of aroma during wine tasting allows nuanced appreciation of the variability of flavour perception in wine consumers.

Journal: Biorxiv
DOI: 10.1101/2024.02.25.581677
Year: 2024

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