This study proposes a biomanufacturing strategy that integrates traditional fermentation principles with three-dimensional (3D) printing to achieve high-value utilization of agricultural waste. 3D-printed fungal scaffolds enable precise spore distribution and optimized microenvironments, significantly enhancing resource transport and activating fungal growth, reproduction, and biosynthetic capacity, with fungal biomass and carotenoid yields increased by 3.42- and 3.27-fold. Notably, the developed food-grade bio-ink based on soybean residue played a pivotal role in scaffold construction, whose polysaccharides and fibers confer a hierarchical porous architecture, improving oxygen transport, water retention, and sustained nutrient release, thus supporting fungal compatibility and growth. Leveraging the structural programmability of 3D printing, the platform enables modular inoculation, structure-environment coupling regulation, and continuous cultivation. It also exhibits strong stability under extreme conditions (freeze-thaw, liquid nitrogen, and UV light). Such a customizable and robust system shows broad application potential in biomanufacturing, future food, and environmental remediation.

The tracking and regulation of alkylpyrazines (APZ) in Sauce-aroma Baijiu (SSAB) are crucial, as these chemicals significantly influence its distinctive flavor character. However, current research has lacked systematic tracking of APZ across regions and brewing processes. This study developed a highly sensitive and accurate HPLC-FLD method to simultaneously quantify 13 APZ in SSAB and analyzed Baijiu samples across multiple dimensions. A systematic regional analysis indicated significant ( p < 0.01) variations in APZ concentration, with Guizhou exhibiting the highest average level (29.498 +/- 7.511 mg/L), followed by Sichuan, Fujian, and Heilongjiang, driven by meteorological circumstances, environmental quality, and microbial community composition. Further investigation into the formation patterns of APZ during SSAB fermentation showed that peak accumulation occurred in the sixth (28.607 +/- 0.952 mg/L) brewing rounds. Kinetic simulation of the aging process demonstrated that the majority of APZ adhere to first-order kinetics. Total APZ demonstrated polynomial development that decelerated after three years, due to precursor depletion, heightened acidity, and competitive responses. These findings underscore the critical roles of raw materials, microbial ecology, and process parameters in shaping the flavor characteristics of SSAB. This study elucidates the transformation behavior of APZ during brewing and its underlying mechanisms, guiding process control and aging optimization of SSAB.

This study investigated the effects of EPS-producing Weissella cibaria fermentation on the quality characteristics of sourdough and yellow alkaline noodles (YANs). The sourdough fermented with 1% sucrose (SW1) achieved the highest EPS production (475.11 mg/100 g) and exhibited the lowest hardness (8.26 N) along with the highest G ' and G '' values. W. cibaria fermentation increased the content of differential volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in sourdough by 1.77-fold, and SW1 sourdough exhibited favorable flavor harmony. YANs prepared with SW1 sourdough (YANs-SW1) effectively delayed browning during storage by inhibiting polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity. The presence of hydrophilic EPS increased the degree of starch gelatinization, resulting in higher gelatinization temperature (73.79 degrees C), as well as a lower gelatinization enthalpy (Delta H) (42.99 J/g). Interactions between EPS, starch, and proteins promoted the formation of a more continuous microstructural network in YANs, thereby improving their textural properties. Compared with the negative control group, YANs-SW1 exhibited a 14.67% increase in water absorption and a 24.16% reduction in cooking loss. Furthermore, the addition of sourdough enhanced the in vitro digestibility of YAN, with a 19.53% increase in slowly digestible starch (SDS) content and a 55.41% decrease in resistant starch (RS) content.

Cultured fish meat requires efficient in vitro expansion of piscine satellite cells (PSCs). However, prolonged culture impairs proliferation and differentiation. Here, astaxanthin (Ast) and naringin (Nar) were evaluated as food-grade alternatives to synthetic modulators such as MHY1485. The combination of Ast and Nar promoted proliferation by accelerating cell-cycle progression and reducing apoptosis. Synergy analysis (Bliss, HAS, and ZIP) indicated a synergistic effect between Ast and Nar. Ast combined with Nar also improved mitochondrial function and redox homeostasis, as evidenced by increased mitochondrial membrane potential, decreased mitochondrial superoxide, and decreased intracellular ROS levels. Furthermore, co-treatment upregulated the expression of myogenic markers, including MyoD1, MyoG, and MyHC, and promoted myotube formation. Mechanistically, these effects of Ast and Nar were associated with mTOR activation, as indicated by phosphorylation levels, while inhibition of mTOR with rapamycin (Rap) attenuated these effects. Collectively, these results highlighted that Ast combined with Nar was an excellent supplement for large-scale expansion and differentiation of PSCs.

Background Obesity has reached pandemic proportions worldwide, primarily fueled by overconsumption of energy-dense, high-fat foods. Although the pharmacological agent orlistat lowers fat absorption, its gastrointestinal side effects and poor long-term compliance have stimulated interest in safer food-based strategies. Modulating gastrointestinal lipid digestion and absorption thus represents a promising non-pharmacological strategy for obesity management. Scope and Approach This review moves beyond lipase-only summaries to analyze multi-target lipid digestion inhibition across physiological intervention nodes covering gastric/small intestinal lipolysis, oil-water interfacial remodeling, bile salt micelle formation, enterocytic lipid transport, white adipose browning, gut microbiota homeostasis and central appetite signaling. We systematically assess natural lipid regulators, including polysaccharides, protein, bioactive peptides, phenolics, and postbiotics, with a strong emphasis on structure-activity relationships. Critically, we discuss the food matrix barrier, analyzing manufacturability, sensory defects, and systemic safety risks as impediments to clinical translation, alongside emerging artificial intelligence technologies and personalized nutrition frameworks. Key Findings and Conclusions Lipid digestion inhibitors function via interconnected mechanisms, yet their efficacy is heavily shaped by physicochemical interactions within complex food matrices. Interfacial engineering and food-grade nanocarrier systems exhibit superior potential to overcome food matrix interference and advance practical functional food applications. Targeted interfacial design, computational screening, and population stratification by genetics and gut microbial profiles will underpin next-generation lipid-regulating functional foods. This work delivers a comprehensive strategic roadmap to translate promising in vitro data into clinically viable, consumer-friendly applications. Future research should prioritize clinically relevant digestion models, human intervention studies, safety evaluation, and scalable food-grade delivery platforms.

The directional alignment of highly mature muscle fibers is a crucial hallmark of successful muscle tissue regeneration in vitro, both in regenerative medicine and cultured meat. While 3D bioprinting enables precise fabrication of tissue architecture, it inherently lacks the capacity to control the spatial distribution and growth trajectories of cells embedded within the bioink. Here, we integrated ultrasound with 3D bioprinting to leverage its precision control capabilities for engineering highly aligned cellular organization and induce muscle fiber formation. Both computational simulations and experimental validation confirmed that exposure to 4000 kHz ultrasonic frequency yielded distinct cell alignment, concomitant with an enhanced proliferation rate. Intermittent low-intensity ultrasound (LIUS) stimulation effectively activated the mechanosensitive Piezo1 channels in piscine satellite cells (PSCs), promoting Ca2+ influx. Ca2+ activates ERK5 in the downstream MAPK pathway, which up-regulates Myogenin and MHC, and finally promotes PSCs differentiation and fusion into myotubes. This non-invasive ultrasound physical stimulation method has great potential for application in the construction of edible muscle tissue.

Cultured meat has emerged as a promising approach to enhancing global food sustainability. Current production methods, however, rely mainly on single-cell-type culture, which fails to replicate the complex composition of conventional meat. In this study, a scaffold-free co-culture system was established to generate structured microtissue comprising highly differentiated muscle and fat cells. Co-cultured spheroids with the ratios of piscine adipose-derived stem cells (PADSCs) to piscine satellite cells (PSCs) being 5:5, 7:3 and 9:1 were investigated, and the result showed that all ratios remained robust and highly viable throughout the differentiation process and successfully induced the formation of bionic tissue containing both myotubes and adipocytes. Based on transcriptome data, the cluster analysis indicated that co-cultured spheroids (the ratio of PADSCs to PSCs was 7:3) were similar to the PADSC spheroids, and the expression levels of cell cycle-related and extracellular matrix-related genes were biased towards those of PADSC spheroids. These results indicated that these co-cultured spheroids held promise as building blocks for further tissue assembly and offered a promising approach for scaling up the production of structured cultured fish meat.

Mannosylerythritol lipids (MELs) are glycolipid biosurfactants with pronounced antibiofilm activity, yet their molecular mechanism of action remains incompletely understood. To identify regulatory pathways involved in MEL-mediated biofilm inhibition, we first conducted comparative transcriptomic analysis of Staphylococcus aureus biofilms exposed to MELs, which identified the quorum sensing (QS) response regulator agrA as a key transcriptionally repressed component. Functional validation using an isogenic Delta agrA mutant demonstrated that loss of agrA markedly attenuated the antibiofilm efficacy of MELs. In wild-type biofilms, MELs caused a significant reduction in biomass (approximately 59.1% on average) and embedded cell viability (up to 1.59 log CFU/mL at 512 & micro;g/mL), accompanied by pronounced disruption of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). In contrast, these effects were substantially weakened in the Delta agrA mutant. The agrA-dependent inhibitory effect of MELs was consistently maintained across food-relevant conditions, including varied temperatures, stainless steel surfaces, and milk matrices. This regulatory dependency further persisted in mixed-species biofilms formed with Bacillus cereus, indicating that agrA represents a stable vulnerability under both simplified and ecologically complex conditions. Subsequent transcriptomic and pathway enrichment analysis revealed that agrA mediates structured yet context-dependent transcriptional responses to MELs exposure. Core virulence-associated pathways, including QS and S. aureus infection, were consistently downregulated in both mono- and mixed-species biofilms. In contrast, ribosome-related pathways were selectively upregulated in mono-species biofilms, whereas mixed-species biofilms exhibited distinct metabolic reprogramming characterized by enhanced energy-supply pathways. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that MELs suppress S. aureus biofilm formation in an agrA-dependent manner, with agrA serving as a central regulatory node, resulting in conserved virulence repression alongside ecologically driven metabolic remodeling.

Natural starter cultures used in food fermentation are often impeded by inter-strain spatial competition, which disrupts the growth dynamics and evolutionary processes of microbial communities. To address this limitation, two bioinks: gelatin-sodium alginate (GA) and micellar casein (MCC) were introduced being coupled with extrusion-based 3D bioprinting at room temperature. This approach allows the structured spatial patterning of three microorganisms including Acetobacter fabarum, Pichia kluyveri, and Lactococcus lactis, which were previously isolated from the kefir grain symbiotic system. Based on the result which clarified the microbial interaction relationship of experimental strains and the benefits of cell non-contact in Transwell system and simplified chemically defined medium (SCDM) liquid macro-systems, these microorganisms were co-cultured under cell-free conditions in a printed scaffold that facilitates non-contact interaction in a distance-dependent manner. Compared with conventional fermentation methods, the MCC-based scaffold with spatially organized cocultures reduces the yogurt fermentation time by nearly threefold, enhances microbial viability to 1010 CFU/g approximately throughout the process, and improves key quality attributes of yogurt, including hardness, cohesiveness, gumminess and the production of flavor compounds such as 0.15 mg/g acetic acid, 1.58 mg/g citric acid and 2.15 mg/g lactic acid.

To improve the accuracy of coffee origin authentication, we developed a pyrazine-targeted fingerprinting approach that synergistically integrates high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), chemometrics, and machine learning for origin discrimination. After validating the HPLC fingerprinting method, we profiled 180 batches, identifying nine shared pyrazine peaks. Based on the proposed fingerprint, chemometric analyses partitioned the 180 batches into five clusters and identified five discriminant pyrazine components. Five machine-learning models were developed; the deep neural network (DNN) performed best, achieving 91.7% accuracy on an internal hold-out validation set, 88.33% mean accuracy in 5-fold cross-validation, and 85.0% accuracy on an independent external test set from a different harvest batch (n = 20). Overall, an interpretable pyrazine fingerprint coupled with modern analytics enables efficient origin discrimination and supports authentication and supply-chain oversight.

Traditional Hong Qu rice wine fermentation relies on solid-state cultivation of red yeast rice, where Monascus grows primarily on the two-dimensional (2D) surface of rice, resulting in limited cultivation controllability. In this study, we developed a three-dimensional (3D) printing bio-ink system supporting Monascus mycelia growth, exhibiting pronounced shear thinning and rapid structural recovery after deformation. The resulting 3D-printed scaffolds featured an interconnected porous microstructure and suitable textural properties, achieving total pigment production by Monascus of up to approximately 215 U/g. Comparative transcriptomic analysis between 3D scaffold cultures and conventional 2D planar cultures revealed that 3D cultivation remarkably upregulated pathways associated with lipid metabolism, energy metabolism, and oxidation-reduction processes, indicating that the 3D cultivation mode enhances secondary metabolic activity. Subsequent wine fermentation using the 3D-cultivated scaffolds produced scaffold-based wine (SW) with physicochemical properties, secondary metabolite profiles, and flavor characteristics comparable to those of traditional Hong Qu rice wine (HQW), while exhibiting a distinctive flavor profile characterized by higher phenethyl alcohol content (247.24 mu g/mL) and a more balanced organic acid composition. SW also showed enhanced antioxidant capacity, with ABTS radical scavenging activity approximately 1.3-fold higher than that of HQW. Meanwhile, SW achieved an approximately 28% higher total pigment content than wines obtained from 2D cultivation approaches. Overall, this work proposes a 3D scaffold-based Monascus cultivation and fermentation strategy for HQW production, enabling improved controllability of the fermentation environment while maintaining the characteristic quality of traditional products, and providing a practical alternative to conventional red yeast rice-based fermentation systems.

Gel meat products are important in the meat market. To develop high-quality meat gel products, mannosylerythritol lipid-A (MEL-A) was added to chicken and beef gels, and their physicochemical and biological properties of the composite gel formed by heating were determined in this study. The results of texture analysis showed that MEL-A could significantly improve the hardness, gumminess and chewiness of meat gels and reduce water loss (P < 0.05). In addition, rheological and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis showed that MEL-A not only improved the rheological properties of meat gel, but also improved its thermal stability. The results of dynamic rheological analysis also showed that MEL-A improved the gel strength of meat gel, and the gel strength of chicken was the highest after adding 1.5 % MEL-A while the gel strength of beef was the highest after adding 2 % MEL-A. The image of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and protein molecular weight distribution measurement indicated that MEL-A induced protein aggregation, resulting in fewer pores in the meat gels and a more compact network structure. These results suggest that different meat gels show good gel properties, so MEL-A has a lot of potential for gel product development.

Amyloid-beta (A beta) aggregation is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD), characterized by cognitive impairment, and there remains a lack of effective functional compound with A beta clearance activity. To elucidate the effect of exopolysaccharide (EPS) extracted from Agaricus sinodeliciosus var. Chaidam on A beta 1-42- induced AD rat and uncover the underlying mechanism, the neuroprotective activity of EPS was evaluated using immunofluorescence, immunohistochemistry, western blot, RT-qPCR, microbiomics and metabolomics. The results demonstrated that EPS exhibited significant anti-AD efficacy, as evidenced by improved cognitive function and spatial memory, balanced brain redox status, suppressed neuroinflammatory responses. EPS substantially reduced A beta 1-42 accumulation in the hippocampus by activating A beta-phagocytic microglia through the mTOR-HIF-1 alpha pathway. Importantly, EPS reconstructed gut microbiota composition by increasing the relative abundance of Ruminococcaceae and reduced Erysipelotrichaceae. The reshaped gut microbiome and the formation of the metabolite serotonin were associated with behavioral alterations, neuroinflammation, and brain oxidative status. Thus, EPS significantly alleviated cognitive deficit and neuroinflammation in A beta 1-42-induced AD rats, potentially by enhancing microglial phagocytosis of A beta 1-42 and modulating the gut microbiome and serotonin production. Collectively, EPS from A. sinodeliciosus var. Chaidam polysaccharide may serve as a novel A beta 1-42-targeted approach for anti-AD therapy.

Searching for natural scaffolds with structural and nutritional properties favorable for cell adhesion and growth is a challenge for piscine cell culture. In this study, myoblasts and preadipocytes from Larimichthys crocea were cultured on uncoated rice grains, and the cell confluence reached over 80% after two days of cultivation. The physical and chemical properties of different rice grains showed that the hardness had a relatively significant regulatory effect on the growth of cells, and 6.45 to 7.28 N was beneficial for the growth of cells. Finally, the nutritional composition and flavor of rice grains were evaluated, revealing that myotubes-organized rice grains were rich in protein, adipocytes-organized rice grains were high in fat. All rice grain samples displayed enhanced flavor profiles. These findings suggest that specific rice varieties can serve as effective scaffolds for the in vitro proliferation and differentiation of piscine stem cells. The resulting rice-meat composite food emerges as a promising innovative food product.

Probiotics have garnered significant interest due to their diverse and vital roles in promoting intestinal health. However, several challenges continue to impede their clinical efficacy, including the preservation of bioactivity during oral administration, effective targeting of intestinal lesions, modulation of the gut microenvironment, and extension of colonization time. This review offers a comprehensive overview of biomaterial-based encapsulation strategies for targeted probiotic delivery to the intestine. Particular attention is given to the factors that govern the selection of probiotic strains and to the role of microbial interactions in shaping the design of oral delivery systems. Furthermore, we highlight the critical challenges associated with oral delivery, summarize the functional materials and their underlying mechanisms, and provide a comparative analysis of their strengths and limitations. Key factors influencing probiotic strain selection and encapsulation methods are examined in detail. The review also highlights major gastrointestinal barriers-such as variable pH, digestive enzymes, reactive oxygen species (ROS), colonization resistance, rapid transit time, and mucus layer degradation-and outlines corresponding mitigation strategies. Recent progress in targeted delivery systems and immune modulation enabled by encapsulated probiotics is discussed, along with a survey of current therapeutic applications. Finally, emerging trends and ongoing challenges in the field are explored, emphasizing the promising potential of encapsulated probiotic systems in restoring microbiome homeostasis and treating dysbiosis-related disorders.

In this study, we aim to investigate the effects of phenolic acids on tetramethylpyrazine (TTMP) formation in low-temperature environments and discuss its possible mechanism. The results demonstrate that TTMP formation kinetics via acetoin (ACT) ammonification was determined to be pseudo-zero-order reaction, which transitions to a pseudo-first-order kinetic model upon high gallic acid concentrations. The TTMP formation in samples spiked with phenolic acids was significantly higher than the control group. The response surface results that the production of TTMP increases with the extension of time align with the TTMP content trend in vinegar aging. At pH 7.0, TTMP formation was 56 and 70 times higher than at pH 3.0 and pH 11.0, respectively. The findings indicate that phenolic acids can alter reactive imine intermediates associated with the formation of pyrazinyl radicals. This study provides valuable insights into enhancing the characteristic pyrazine flavor and improving quality control in fermented foods.

Microcarriers (MCs) play a crucial role in promoting cells to expand in culture systems for the industries as regenerative medicine products and cell-derived alternative proteins. However, high-performance and biosafe MCs are still urgently needed for cell scale-up expansion under the dynamic shearing environment of bioreactor and pipeline. Here, gelatin was used which is of high biocompatibility and edibility as MC matrix, by TGaseinduced crosslinking in combination with emulsification method for piscine satellite cells (PSCs) cultivation. MCs cultivation conditions were optimized in the spinner flasks (6000 MCs/mL, 8:1 ratio of cells to MCs, 50 rpm speed), to achieve about 5 fold of PSCs on Day 9. To further increase the proliferation efficiency, solid MCs were modified to porous MCs through ice templating method, which could lead to similar to 6.32 proliferation multiple on Day 9 with high-efficiency differentiation. Also, transcriptome analysis showed that the genes related to cell cycle and DNA replication were obviously upregulated in the MCs groups in comparison to the 2D cultivation group of PSCs. Collectively, these findings demonstrate the ability of porous MCs in realizing large-scale cell expansion and even differentiation.

As sleep quality improvement has become a concern in modern society, this study systematically investigated the potential sleep-promoting mechanisms of Lactobacillus plantarum P8 (L. plantarum P8) combined with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Network pharmacology analysis revealed that the homologous medicine-food formula, comprising Ziziphi Spinosae Semen, Lilii Bulbus, Gardeniae Fructus, and Poria Cocos (Schw.) Wolf, may alleviate insomnia through the PI3K-AKT and Toll-like receptor pathways. Furthermore, L. plantarum P8 combined with TCM significantly increased sleep duration, reduced sleep latency, and improved sleep rate (P < 0.05). L. plantarum P8 combined with TCM exhibited neuroprotective effects by enhancing the release of 5-HT and GABA in brain tissue. Gut microbiota analyses indicated that while maintaining the Firmicutes to Bacteroidota ratio, the L. plantarum P8 combined with TCM intervention promoted the abundance of sleep-inducing bacteria, particularly Oscillibacter. Metabolomic profiling suggested that the sleep-promoting effect of L. plantarum P8 combined with TCM may be related to short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), pyruvate, and phosphocreatine. Transcriptomic analysis elucidated that sleep-promoting was mainly related to the cAMP signalling and dopaminergic synapse pathways. Spearman's correlation analysis showed that gut microbiota significantly correlated with neurotransmitters, SCFAs, genes, and metabolites. Metabolome-transcriptome analyses revealed that L. plantarum P8 combined with TCM promoted sleep mainly through lipid and amino acid metabolism. This study provides mechanistic insights into the synergistic sleep-promoting effects of L. plantarum P8 combined with TCM, providing a scientific reference for the development of probiotics combined with TCM therapies in sleep management.

Stress response pathways are critical for probiotic survival, promoting survival through adaptive changes in genes and proteins. However, the underlying stress response mechanisms of probiotics, especially Weissella confusa, are poorly understood. We have employed whole genome sequencing to assemble and annotate the W. confusa ZJU.2 genome, probing in parallel the proteome and transcriptome changes under the treatment of gastric acid and bile salts through a multi-omics approach. Stringent filtering reveals that significant upregulation of alanine, aspartate and glutamate metabolism and glycolysis/gluconeogenesis pathway are critical for gastric acid and bile salt tolerance in W. confusa ZJU.2. Concomitantly, the conjoint transcriptome and proteome analysis showed that the polysaccharide biosynthesis protein WP_039968605.1 plays an important role in gastric acid and bile salt tolerance. Parallel reaction monitoring (PRM) and Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) analysis were used to demonstrate the reliability of the results. Moreover, we found that W. confusa ZJU.2 may have hypoglycemic effects through an in vivo zebrafish chip model and in vitro alpha-glucosidase activity assay. Collectively, this study provides a valuable multi-omics resource for the study of stress response mechanisms of Weissella and lays a solid foundation for its broader functional activity applications.