title: Evolutionary engineering to enhance starter culture performance in food fermentations.
abstract: Microbial starter cultures are essential for consistent product quality and functional properties such as flavor, texture, pH or the alcohol content of various fermented foods. Strain improvement programs to achieve desired properties in starter cultures are diverse, but developments in next-generation sequencing lead to an increased interest in evolutionary engineering of desired phenotypes. We here discuss recent developments of strain selection protocols and how computational approaches can assist such experimental design. Furthermore the analysis of evolved phenotypes and possibilities with complex consortia are highlighted. Studies carried out with mainly yeast and lactic acid bacteria demonstrate the power of evolutionary engineering to deliver strains with novel phenotypes as well as insight into underlying mechanisms.
authors.affiliation: NIZO Food Research, Kernhemseweg 2, 6718 ZB Ede, The Netherlands; Top Institute Food and Nutrition, P.O. Box 557, 6700 AN Wageningen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: herwig.bachmann@nizo.com.
authors.forename: Herwig
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bachmann
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Delft University of Technology, Julianalaan 67, 2628 BC Delft, The Netherlands; Kluyver Centre for Genomics of Industrial Fermentation, Julianalaan 67, 2628 BC Delft, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jack T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Pronk
authors.affiliation: NIZO Food Research, Kernhemseweg 2, 6718 ZB Ede, The Netherlands; Top Institute Food and Nutrition, P.O. Box 557, 6700 AN Wageningen, The Netherlands; Kluyver Centre for Genomics of Industrial Fermentation, Julianalaan 67, 2628 BC Delft, The Netherlands; Host-Microbe Interactomics Group, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 338, 6700 AH Wageningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Michiel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kleerebezem
authors.affiliation: Systems Bioinformatics/Center for Integrative Bioinformatics Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam Institute for Molecules Medicines and Systems, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, de Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Kluyver Centre for Genomics of Industrial Fermentation, Julianalaan 67, 2628 BC Delft, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Bas
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Teusink
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D057005:Bioengineering; D005285:Fermentation; D005516:Food Microbiology; D006801:Humans; D010641:Phenotype; D013649:Taste