Finding the microbes responsible for beneficial and deleterious metabolites in malt production

精酿啤酒是加拿大发展最快的行业之一，目前约占加拿大啤酒行业90亿美元的25%。精酿啤酒行业的特点是小批量生产的啤酒完全从天然成分，和高度敬业的消费者，期望既可靠的签名啤酒沿着不断发展的新啤酒口味。啤酒制造商面临的主要风险是微生物活动，这些活动会产生不好的味道，以及细菌污染，这些细菌会在包装后生长并使啤酒变质。因此，在所有的食品生产行业，啤酒酿造商努力工作，以避免腐败所造成的不良细菌活动。例如，乳酸菌在酿造过程中使用的原材料（谷物和啤酒花）上普遍存在，并且已知其在酿造环境中持续存在。不受欢迎的细菌活动会导致产生恶臭的异味和质地（例如粘糊糊的或过度碳酸化的），这会导致重大的经济损失，并严重影响消费者的体验。NSERC Engage将卡梅隆实验室在微生物遗传学方面的专业知识带到：1.确定细菌和真菌进入啤酒厂的原料（粮食和啤酒花），和2.鉴定啤酒厂中的乳酸菌，为工业合作伙伴的常规质量控制测试开发更好的基因靶点。第一个目标将允许相关的微生物群落与代谢物正在测量的工业合作伙伴。这些相关性使改进的工业过程能够控制原料上的微生物活性，以减少不需要的代谢物（即，坏味道）。第二个目标是协助酿造环境的质量控制，以减少污染的风险。总而言之，拟议的Engage项目将为合作伙伴提供进入生产线并持续存在的微生物群落的知识，以及纳入其常规质量控制监测的诊断标志物。

Craft brewing is one of the fastest growing industries in Canada, now accounting for about 25% of thenine-billion-dollar Canadian beer industry. Defining characteristics of the craft brewing industry are the smallbatch production of beers exclusively from natural ingredients, and highly dedicated consumers that expectboth reliable signature beers along with ongoing development of new beer flavours. Major risks for brewers aremicrobial activities that generate bad tasting flavours, and contamination with bacteria that later grow and spoilbeer after packaging. Therefore, as in all food production industries, brewers work diligently to avoid spoilagecaused by undesirable bacterial activities. For example, lactic acid bacteria are ubiquitous on raw materials(grain and hops) used in the brewing process and are known to persist in the brewing environment. Unwantedbacterial activity results in the production of malodorous off-flavours and textures (e.g. slimy orover-carbonated) which can lead to significant financial losses and strongly influence consumer experience.This NSERC Engage brings the Cameron lab's expertise in microbial genetics to: 1. Identify the bacterial andfungus that enter a brewery on the raw ingredients (grain and hops), and 2. Identify the lactic acid bacteria inthe brewery to develop better gene targets for routine quality control testing by the industrial partner. The firstgoal will allow for correlation of microbial communities with metabolites being measured by the industrialpartner. These correlations enable improved industrial processes to control microbial activity on the rawingredients to reduce the chance of unwanted metabolites (ie. bad flavours). The second goal assists in qualitycontrol in the brewing environment to reduce the risk of contamination. Altogether, the proposed Engageproject will provide the partner with knowledge of the microbial communities entering and persisting in theproduction line, as well as diagnostic markers for incorporation into their routine quality control monitoring.