Development of synthetic microbial communities for coffee fermentation using a hightroughput approach

• Grant number: 23/12461-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: February 10, 2024
• End date: February 09, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agricultural Engineering - Process Engineering of Agricultural Products
• Principal Investigator: Anderson de Souza Sant'Ana
• Grantee: Carla Alves Barbosa
• Supervisor: Briardo Llorente
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia de Alimentos (FEA). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Macquarie University, Australia
• Associated to the scholarship: 21/12780-7 - Synthetic Microbial Community: Development, Application and Assessment of Impacts on Fermentation and Coffee Quality, BP.DR

Abstract

Coffee is a drink consumed worldwide and is very important economically for Brazil. Coffee can go through three types of processing after harvest: dry, wet, and semidry. The coffee is pulped and fermented during wet processing in a water tank, mainly to remove the mucilage. Fermentation is an important step in the process. However, it is a complicated process to control because it depends on naturally occurring microbiota and environmental conditions. The objective of this project is to evaluate the impact of synthetic microbial communities (SynComs) in coffee fermentation. SynComs will be developed using microorganisms previously isolated from wet-fermented coffee and then characterized for enzymatic activity, growth under different types of stress, metabolism, and stability. After characterization, the best-performing SynCom will be used in coffee fermentation. The present work is expected to develop a stable synthetic microbial community to assist in the coffee fermentation process. (AU)