Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Michielsen, Sabine
• Vercelli, Gabriel T
• Cordero, Otto X
• Bachmann, Herwig

Titel

Spatially structured microbial consortia and their role in food fermentations

Ist Teil von

• Current opinion in biotechnology, 2024-06, Vol.87, p.103102, Article 103102

Ort / Verlag

England: Elsevier Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2024

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Microbial consortia are important for the fermentation of foods. They bring combined functionalities to the fermented product, but stability and product consistency of fermentations with complex consortia can be hard to control. Some of these consortia, such as water- and milk-kefir and kombucha, grow as multispecies aggregates or biofilms, in which micro-organisms taking part in a fermentation cascade are spatially organized. The spatial organization of micro-organisms in these aggregates can impact what metabolic interactions are realized in the consortia, ultimately affecting the growth dynamics and evolution of microbes. A better understanding of such spatially structured communities is of interest from the perspective of microbial ecology and biotechnology, as multispecies aggregates can be used to valorize energy-rich substrates, such as plant-based substrates or side streams from the food industry. [Display omitted] •Complex food fermentations can experience reproducibility issues.•Spatial structure created by kefir and kombucha protects microbial cells from stress.•Spatial structure creates niches to maintain high species and metabolic diversity.•Structured communities hold potential for the fermentation of novel substrates.