Microbial Profiling in Acacia Honey through Metabarcoding Analysis

The origin of food product affects its value assessment. This trend has led to various methods for tracing provenance, one of which is based on DNA. DNA-based analysis utilizing residual tissues of organisms potentially present in honey can be employed to determine its identity. Two-types of DNA, cell-free DNA and pollen DNA, were isolated from five samples of honey. A total of ten DNA samples were analyzed using the 16S marker for metagenomic barcoding analysis, identifying thirty species of bacteria. The quantitative distribution of these bacterial species exhibited variation according to their geographical origin, and DNA purifying methods. Thus, DNA-based metagenomic barcoding analysis enabled for the detection of diverse micoorganisms within the honey and provided differences between production regions, suggesting the possibility of distinguishing the origin.