Monitoring the yeasts ecology and volatiles profile throughout the spontaneous fermentation of Taggiasca cv. table olives through culture-dependent and independent methods.

Taggiasca table olives are typical of Liguria, a Northwestern Italian region, produced with a spontaneous fermentation carried out by placing the raw drupes directly into brine with a salt concentration of 8-12 % w/v. Such concentrations limit the development of unwanted microbes and favor the growth of yeasts. This process usually lasts up to 8 months. Yeasts are found throughout the entire fermentation process and they are mainly involved in the production of volatile organic compounds, which strongly impact the quality of the final product. The aim of this study was to evaluate the dynamics of autochthonous yeasts in brines and olives in a spontaneous process with no lye pre-treatment or addition of acids in the fermenting brine with 10 % NaCl (w/v) in two batches during 2021 harvest. Three hundred seventy-three yeast colonies were isolated, characterized by rep-PCR and identified by the D1/D2 region of the 26S rRNA gene sequencing. Mycobiota was also studied by 26S rRNA gene metataxonomics, while metabolome was assessed through GC-MS analysis. Traditional culture-dependent methods showed the dominance of Candida diddensiae, Wickerhamomyces anomalus, Pichia membranifaciens and Aureobasidium pullulans, with differences in species distribution between batches, sampling time and type of sample (olives/brines). Amplicon-based sequencing confirmed the dominance of W. anomalus in batch 1 throughout the entire fermentation, while Cyteromyces nyonsensis and Aureobasidium spp. were most abundant in the fermentation in batch 2. Volatilome results were analyzed and correlated to the mycobiota data, confirming differences between fermentation stages. Given the high appreciation for this traditional food, this study helps elucidate the mycobiota associated to Taggiasca cv. table olives and its relationship with the quality of the final product.