title: Fermented foods as experimentally tractable microbial ecosystems.
abstract: Microbial communities of fermented foods have provided humans with tools for preservation and flavor development for thousands of years. These simple, reproducible, accessible, culturable, and easy-to-manipulate systems also provide opportunities for dissecting the mechanisms of microbial community formation. Fermented foods can be valuable models for processes in less tractable microbiota.
authors: Department of Biology, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155, USA.
authors: Benjamin E
authors: BE
authors: Wolfe
authors: FAS Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. Electronic address: rdutton@cgr.harvard.edu.
authors: Rachel J
authors: RJ
authors: Dutton
mesh_terms: D017753:Ecosystem; D005285:Fermentation; D005516:Food Microbiology; D056265:Microbial Interactions; D013649:Taste