Extracellular vesicles in food biotechnology

The reasons that lead us to make such claim are given as: (i) the production of EVs is a widespread feature in all domains of life; (ii) a growing number of functions are being identified for EVs, the most prominent one being biological communication; (iii) the study of EVs has become important for the understanding of biological processes and as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool in the biomedical sciences; (iv) many fermented foods require the activity of microbial consortia involving multiple species; (v) an increasing number of studies are showing that interactions between microorganisms may be relevant in the development of fermentation processes and would therefore be of biotechnological interest (Curiel et al., 2017; Tronchoni et al., 2017; Conacher et al., 2019). [...]there are already some reports of EVs produced by yeasts and lactic acid bacteria of food interest (Dean et al., 2019; Mencher et al., 2020). [...]EVs have been isolated under winemaking-like conditions from six wine yeast species, including S. cerevisiae (Mencher et al., 2020). [...]the analysis of EV’s macromolecular composition (miRNAs, proteins, lipids and other metabolites) and of the physiological responses of yeast cells to EVs might unveil novel intracellular signalling systems, or at least new functions for those already known.