Working Groups

WG2. Screening and characterization cereal flours and sourdough microbiota

fotos

João Rocha (Portugal) - MM

António Rego e Maria João Sousa (Portugal) - MMXX

Maria João (Portugal) - MMXX

Objectives and impacts

  • Genotype and phenotype screening and characterization of microorganisms.

  • Contribution to microbiological diversity and save genetic microbial resources.

  • Open access web database on microbiota: genotype, phenotype and technological data.

  • Susanne Miescher Schwenninger
    Switzerland WGVL2

Ongoing WG projects



Project of books

Project of special issues in peer-reviewed journal

f you are editor or guest editor and want to disseminate a Special issue through our website (News / Events) and mailing list, please contact the Chair. Here you can find some invitations to contribute to Special Issues.

Special issue: Screening and characterization of the diversity of food microorganisms and their metabolites. Journal Microorganisms (MDPI). Deadline to submit a tentative title: 29th July 2020. Deadline to submit the paper: 31st January 2021.

For further information, please see the file “2019-11-16 Microbial Safety of Fermented Products” and contact the Chair.

Special issue: Microbial Safety of Fermented Products. Journal Microorganisms (MDPI). Deadline was extended to June 2020. For further information, please see the file “2019-11-16 Microbial Safety of Fermented Products” and contact the Chair.

Special issue: New Insights into Cereals and Cereal-Based Foods. Journal Foods (MDPI). Deadline: 31 October 2020. For further information, please see the file “2019-12-09 New Insights into Cereals and Cereal-Based Foods” and “2020-09-21 New Insights into Cereals and Cereal-Based Foods.docx”, and contact Professor Maria Papageorgiu (mariapapage@food.teithe.gr. Members of SOURDOMICS receive a 30% discount.

Special issue: In response to several requests of our community of SOURDOMICS (https://sourdomics.com/), the deadline of the Open Access Journal Special Issue “Screening and characterization of the diversity of food microorganisms and their metabolites” in the Journal Microorganisms has been extended to 30th June 2021. Three APC’s discounts of 50% have been applied, so there are still two to be allocated. In addition, 20% APC’s discount is applied to all the manuscripts. More info below. Several manuscripts are still being prepared for submission by different authors. The list of published manuscripts can be found at: Microorganisms is an open-access peer-reviewed journal, with the article processing charges (APC’s) in 2021 of 2000 CHF (Swiss francs) (≈1857.5€) (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/Microorganisms/apc). On the scope of this invitation, MDPI provided a 50% discount to the first accepted 5 papers and all the other papers will enjoy a 20% discount. These 50% discounts are limited to 5 papers and applied according to the date of acceptance after the peer-review process. For more information on this subject, please contact the Assistant Editor of MDPI: josephine.xue@mdpi.com.Regarding the type of article, Reviews, Regular Articles, Communications, etc are acceptable. Microorganisms has no restrictions on the length of manuscripts, provides that the text is concise and comprehensive. For more information, please visit the Instructions for Authors: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/microorganisms/instructions.

According to the information given by MDPI, the Journal Microorganisms has been indexed by Scopus in July 2019 (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/microorganisms/indexing) and belongs to the 2nd Quartile (Q2) in Scimago. The Impact factor (IF) is 4.167.

Projects of collaborative manuscripts

Project of biobanks

Ongoing research projects in consortium

WG outputs


  • STSM 1 - GP1 - Short-Term Scientific Missions (STSM’s)

    Genotype and functional characterization of sourdough lactic acid bacteria

    November 01, 2019 - February 29, 2020

    Sourdough, mainly based on wheat or rye flour and water, is a relatively complex microbial ecosystem densely inhabited by yeasts and lactic acid bacteria (LAB), which are mainly responsible for dough leavening and acidification. Within this community, LAB have received attention because of their higher diversity and greater influence on odor, aroma, shelf-life and nutritional aspects of sourdough baked goods. Sourdough LAB may originate from flour, additional ingredients, water and bakery environment. The serial fermentations, repeated for 7–15 days, lead to mature sourdough, characterized by stable numbers of LAB, and constant acidification and leavening performances. Once mature sourdough has been produced, the stability of its microbial community is debated. Some researchers reported about very stable sourdoughs, at microbial species and even strain level. Others observed that bacterial species and strains fluctuate within different time in the same sourdough. Recently, the scientific research has focused the attention to characterise genotype and functional properties of LAB inhabiting the sourdough. The aim of the STSM will be to explore the genetic makeup and functional properties of LAB community of sourdough.Total DNA will be extracted from sourdough. Colture indipendent methods and omic approaches will be adopted to investigate genotype and functional abilities of LAB. Results will help to clarify role, contribution and evolution of LAB community in the sourdough ecosystem.

  • STSM 2 - GP1 - Short-Term Scientific Missions (STSM’s)

    Sequencing, assembly, annotation and functional analysis of bacterial genomes

    January 07, 2020 - April 07, 2020

    1. Aim and motivation. Genome sequencing of food fermenting bacteria is a powerful tool for their taxonomic identification, to understand their ecological adaptation, and to allow their exploitation in food biotechnology.
    2. Proposed contribution to the scientific objectives of the Action. The training mission will contribute to the following scientific objectives:
      1. Contribution to microbial diversity and identification of genetic microbial resources;
      2. identify potential applications of sourdough microbes.
    3. Relevant methodologies and techniques. The short term training mission will provide training on the basic workflow for sequencing of bacterial genomes, including DNA isolation and quality control, assembly of reads obtained on the Illumina platform, annotation of bacterial genomes, and the functional analysis with tools that allow identification of the taxonomic position, carbohydrate active enzymes, bacteriocins, phages, and other functional features.
    4. Work plan (Provisional program, Tasks to achieve the proposed aim, corresponding goals and expected achievements).
      Provisional program:
      Week 1, DNA isolation and DNA quality control.
      Week 2. Assembly and annotation of bacterial genomes. We will work with genomes that were sequenced at the University of Alberta unless participants bring sequence data to the workshop.
      Week 3 and 4. Functional analysis with suitable online tools. Our current work focuses on genes coding for antimicrobial peptides or metabolites, carbohydrate active enzymes, and determinants for resistance to chemical or physical stressors; the focus of the analysis will depend on the specific research topic of the participants.
    • Michael Gänzle,
    • mgaenzle@ualberta.ca,
    • Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences,
    • University of Alberta (Canada).
  • STSM 3 - GP1 - Short-Term Scientific Missions (STSM’s)

    Interactions between lactic acid bacteria and yeast during sourdough fermentation

    November 01, 2019 - April 07, 2020

    Sourdough, mainly based on wheat or rye flour and water, is a relatively complex microbial ecosystem densely inhabited by yeasts and lactic acid bacteria (LAB), which are mainly responsible for dough leavening and acidification. These ecosystems have received attention because of their high diversity and important influence on odor, aroma, shelf-life and nutritional aspects of sourdough baked goods. Sourdough microbial community may originate from flour, additional ingredients, water and bakery environment. The serial fermentations, repeated for 7–15 days, lead to mature sourdough, characterized by stable numbers of LAB and yeasts, and constant acidification and leavening performances. Once mature sourdough has been produced, the stability of its microbial community is debated. Some researchers reported about very stable sourdoughs, at microbial species and even strain level. Others observed that species and strains fluctuate within different time in the same sourdough. Recently, the scientific research has focused the attention to elucidate the interaction between lactic acid bacteria and yeast during sourdough fermentation. The aim of the STSM will be to explore these interactions.Colture dipendent and colture indipendent methods, omic approaches and microscopy methods will be adopted for the study. Results will help to clarify the interactions between LAB and yeasts in the sourdough ecosystem.


Face-to-face and teleconference WG2 meetings

  • 2019-05-24 WG2 Teleconference Meeting

  • 2019-09-19 WG2 Teleconference Meeting

  • 2019-10-04 WG2 Teleconference Meeting

  • 2019-12-06 WG2 Teleconference Meeting

  • 2020-02-07 WG2 Teleconference Meeting

Project proposals in consortium

  • 2020. Rocha, J.M. (Coordinator), Konrad, D. et al. BIOADVANCE – Biotechnological advances in applications of natural sourdough ferments through foodomics. Programme “Projects of the Support System for Scientific and Technological Research (IC&DT) in all scientific domains, call 2019“. Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT).

Concluded research projects in consortium

Poster and Oral communications in events

  • Rocha, J.M., Malcata, F.X. (2019) Spontaneous sourdough fermentation: an ancestral process towards healthier and safety food. 1st INIAV Symposium on Food Security: "Towards Food for the Future". Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária e Veterinária, I.P., Vila do Conde, Portugal, November 28th. P1.14, pp. 73-75.

Publications

  • Păcularu-Burada, B., Georgescu, L.A., Vasile, M.A., Rocha, J.M., Bahrim, G.-E.* (2020) Selection of wild lactic acid bacteria strains as promoters of postbiotics in gluten-free sourdoughs. Microorganisms (MDPI), 8, 643, Special Issue: Microbial Safety of Fermented Products; doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms8050643.
  • Bartkiene, E.*, Lele, V., Ruzauskas, M., Mayrhofer, S., Domig, K., Starkute1, V., Zavistanaviciute, P., Bartkevics, V-, Pugajeva, I., Klupsaite, D., Juodeikiene, G., Mickiene, R., Rocha, J.M. (2020) Lactic Acid Bacteria Isolation from Spontaneous Sourdough and Their Characterization Including Antimicrobial and Antifungal Properties Evaluation. Microorganisms (MDPI), 8, (1), 64; Special Issue: Microbial Safety of Fermented Products; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms8010064.

Patents

Sign up for our Newsletter