Microbial biodiversity associated to the fermentation of vegetable products.

The activity of our group is organized around the fermentation of table olives and other vegetable products. The setup of starters to improve the quality and security of this lactic acid fermentation has been the objective of our research in the past, including the isolation and characterization of microbial strains producing bacteriocins, being resistant to phenolic compounds, able to grow under alkaline and high salt concentrations conditions, among other characteristics. More recently, a comprehensive study of the microbial diversity associated to these fermentations resulted in a large collection of microorganisms (bacteria, yeast and archaea) that could be the focus of biotechnological exploitation both in vivo (starters, probiotics) or their metabolites (bacteriocins, exopolysaccharides, carotenoids, enzymes). This wide collection of wild-type microbial strains is a way to rescue and preserve the inherent biodiversity.