Microbiomes in Food Systems

This Ph.D. research project aims at investigating the microbial communities found in different fermented food matrices and to select potential starter cultures, starting from naturally fermented table olives. The experimental plan consists of integrating traditional culture-based techniques with a more advanced multi-omics approach, including metagenomics and metataxonomics. The use of MALDI-ToF MS Biotyper will also contribute to the identification of our isolates and will implement the current databases. The combination of these approaches will provide a complete overview of the complexity of the microbial populations that colonize fermented food matrices.