title: Metagenomic insights into the dynamics of microbial communities in food.
abstract: Metagenomics has proven to be a powerful tool in exploring a large diversity of natural environments such as air, soil, water, and plants, as well as various human microbiota (e.g. digestive tract, lungs, skin). DNA sequencing techniques are becoming increasingly popular and less and less expensive. Given that high-throughput DNA sequencing approaches have only recently started to be used to decipher food microbial ecosystems, there is a significant growth potential for such technologies in the field of food microbiology. The aim of this review is to present a survey of recent food investigations via metagenomics and to illustrate how this approach can be a valuable tool in the better characterization of foods and their transformation, storage and safety. Traditional food in particular has been thoroughly explored by global approaches in order to provide information on multi-species and multi-organism communities.
authors.affiliation: University of Liège, Food Science Department, Fundamental and Applied Research for Animal and Health, Food Microbiology, Sart-Tilman B43b, B-4000 Liège, Belgium. Electronic address: gilles.kergourlay@ulg.ac.be.
authors.forename: Gilles
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kergourlay
authors.affiliation: University of Liège, Food Science Department, Fundamental and Applied Research for Animal and Health, Food Microbiology, Sart-Tilman B43b, B-4000 Liège, Belgium. Electronic address: bernard.taminiau@ulg.ac.be.
authors.forename: Bernard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Taminiau
authors.affiliation: University of Liège, Food Science Department, Fundamental and Applied Research for Animal and Health, Food Microbiology, Sart-Tilman B43b, B-4000 Liège, Belgium. Electronic address: georges.daube@ulg.ac.be.
authors.forename: Georges
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Daube
authors.affiliation: INRA, UMR1319 Micalis, F-78352 Jouy-en-Josas, France; AgroParisTech, UMR Micalis, F-78352 Jouy-en-Josas, France. Electronic address: marie-christine.champomier-verges@jouy.inra.fr.
authors.forename: Marie-Christine
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Champomier Vergès
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D005511:Food Handling; D005516:Food Microbiology; D061353:Food Storage; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D006801:Humans; D056186:Metagenomics / Q000379:methods*; D064307:Microbiota / Q000235:genetics*; D010944:Plants / Q000382:microbiology; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA / Q000379:methods; D012987:Soil
chemical_list: D012987:Soil
keywords: Cheese; Fermented food; Food microbiology; Food processing; Food storage; Metagenetics; Metagenomics; Microbial communities