Working in the wine industry may alter the levels and diversity of bacteria in a person鈥檚 nose, potentially affecting how they perceive the drink鈥檚 aroma and flavour.
Previous research suggests that the bacteria and other microorganisms in our mouth, known as our oral microbiome, . Given the close connection between taste and smell, and at the Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources in Portugal and their colleagues wanted to better understand the role the nasal microbiome may have in flavour perception.
The researchers recruited five people 鈥� one woman and four men 鈥� who either identified as wine tasters or had worked in the wine industry for at least 15 years, the 鈥渨ine group鈥�. They also looked at another five people 鈥� four women and one man 鈥� who drank alcohol at least once a week, acting as the control group.
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The participants swabbed inside their noses once, with the researchers then cataloguing the bacteria on the swabs according to their species.
After accounting for the participants鈥� diet, oral hygiene habits and other lifestyle factors, the bacteria among the wine group appeared to be less diverse and existed in lower numbers than in the control group.
This may be due to the former group鈥檚 frequent exposure to alcohol via smelling or tasting wine. 鈥淭he alcohol molecule dehydrates bacteria,鈥� says Beja-Pereira. 鈥淚t removes water from their membranes and they explode. If you kill the bacteria often, you don鈥檛 give enough time for repopulation.鈥�
But bacterial quality may trump quantity when it comes to how our nasal microbiome helps us distinguish certain odours, which could affect a wine taster鈥檚 flavour perception, says P茅rez-Pardal. Although the team didn鈥檛 compare flavour perception between the groups, previous research suggests that .
In this early stage research, a statistical analysis didn鈥檛 find that the bacterial differences between the two groups was significant, which means they could have been a chance finding.
But Beja-Pereira says that the lack of statistical significance was probably due to the study鈥檚 small sample size. The study was carried out earlier in the covid-19 pandemic, when some people were more hesitant to swab their noses out of concern that they may be told they have the coronavirus and must self-isolate, which affected the researchers鈥� ability to recruit for the trial, he says. The researchers are planning to carry out a larger study, says Beja-Pereira.
at the National Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment in Paris, France, says that the study鈥檚 main limitations are its small sample size and the unequal distribution of the participants鈥� sex between the two groups. 鈥淢aybe the difference in the microbiome boils down to the sex rather than being a wine taster,鈥� he says.
bioRxiv
