dc.contributor.author	Walsh, Aaron M.
dc.contributor.author	Crispie, Fiona
dc.contributor.author	Kilcawley, Kieran N.
dc.contributor.author	O'Sullivan, Orla
dc.contributor.author	O'Sullivan, Maurice G.
dc.contributor.author	Claesson, Marcus J.
dc.contributor.author	Cotter, Paul D.
dc.contributor.funder	Science Foundation Ireland	en
dc.date.accessioned	2017-03-30T11:45:11Z
dc.date.available	2017-03-30T11:45:11Z
dc.date.issued	2016-10-04
dc.date.updated	2017-03-29T11:24:36Z
dc.description.abstract	Kefir is a putatively health-promoting dairy beverage that is produced when a kefir grain, consisting of a consortium of microorganisms, is added to milk to initiate a natural fermentation. Here, a detailed analysis was carried out to determine how the microbial population, gene content, and flavor of three kefirs from distinct geographic locations change over the course of 24-h fermentations. Metagenomic sequencing revealed that Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens was the dominant bacterial species in kefir during early stages of fermentations but that Leuconostoc mesenteroides became more prevalent in later stages. This pattern is consistent with an observation that genes involved in aromatic amino acid biosynthesis were absent from L. kefiranofaciens but were present in L. mesenteroides. Additionally, these shifts in the microbial community structure, and associated pathways, corresponded to changes in the levels of volatile compounds. Specifically, Acetobacter spp. Correlated with acetic acid; Lactobacillus spp. correlated with carboxylic acids, esters and ketones; Leuconostoc spp. correlated with acetic acid and 2,3-butanedione; and Saccharomyces spp. correlated with esters. The correlation data suggest a causal relationship between microbial taxa and flavor that is supported by observations that addition of L. kefiranofaciens NCFB 2797 increased the levels of esters and ketones whereas addition of L. mesenteroides 213M0 increased the levels of acetic acid and 2,3-butanedione. Finally, we detected genes associated with probiotic functionalities in the kefir microbiome. Our results illustrate the dynamic nature of kefir fermentations and microbial succession patterns therein and can be applied to optimize the fermentation processes, flavors, and health-related attributes of this and other fermented foods. IMPORTANCE: Traditional fermented foods represent relatively low-complexity microbial environments that can be used as model microbial communities to understand how microbes interact in natural environments. Our results illustrate the dynamic nature of kefir fermentations and microbial succession patterns therein. In the process, the link between individual species, and associated pathways, with flavour compounds is revealed and several genes that could be responsible for the purported gut health-associated benefits of consuming kefir are identified. Ultimately, in addition to providing an important fundamental insight into microbial interactions, this information can be applied to optimize the fermentation processes, flavors, and health-related attributes of this and other fermented foods.	en
dc.description.sponsorship	Science Foundation Ireland (SFI/12/RC/2273; 11/PI/1137; 13/SIRG/2160)	en
dc.description.status	Peer reviewed	en
dc.description.version	Published Version	en
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf	en
dc.identifier.articleid	e00052-16
dc.identifier.citation	Walsh, A. M., Crispie, F., Kilcawley, K., O’Sullivan, O., O’Sullivan, M. G., Claesson, M. J. and Cotter, P. D. (2016) 'Microbial succession and flavor production in the fermented dairy beverage kefir’, mSystems 1(5), e00052-16 (16pp). doi:10.1128/mSystems.00052-16	en
dc.identifier.doi	10.1128/mSystems.00052-16
dc.identifier.endpage	16	en
dc.identifier.issn	2379-5077
dc.identifier.issued	5	en
dc.identifier.journaltitle	mSystems	en
dc.identifier.startpage	1	en
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10468/3850
dc.identifier.volume	1	en
dc.language.iso	en	en
dc.publisher	American Society for Microbiology	en
dc.relation.uri	http://msystems.asm.org/content/2/1/e00003-17
dc.rights	© 2016, the Authors. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.	en
dc.rights.uri	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/	en
dc.subject	Dairy	en
dc.subject	Flavor	en
dc.subject	Kefir	en
dc.subject	Metagenomics	en
dc.subject	Microbiota	en
dc.title	Microbial succession and flavor production in the fermented dairy beverage kefir	en
dc.type	Article (peer-reviewed)	en

Microbial succession and flavor production in the fermented dairy beverage kefir

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