Microbial Succession and Flavor Production in the Fermented Dairy Beverage Kefir.

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 <

SUBMITTER: Walsh AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5080400 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep-Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature