微生物インタラクション研究室のGerald Leong Shiey Changさん（M2）が第78回日本生物工学会大会実行委員会において「学生優秀発表賞」を受賞

微生物インタラクション研究室のGerald Leong Shiey Changさん（M2）が第78回日本生物工学会大会実行委員会において「学生優秀発表賞」を受賞しました（令和8年10月13日）。

受賞のコメント

I am deeply honoured to receive the Student Presentation Award at the 78th Annual Meeting of the Society for Biotechnology, Japan. As this was my first scientific conference presentation, receiving this recognition is especially meaningful to me. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Associate Professor Daisuke Watanabe and Assistant Professor Naoki Akasaka for their continuous guidance and support since I arrived in Japan last year. This award is a great encouragement and a meaningful milestone in my research journey. I hope to build upon this experience and continue improving myself as a researcher.

受賞研究課題名

Suppression of yeast alcoholic fermentation by Leuconostoc mesenteroides in a coculture model

受賞内容

Yeasts and lactic acid bacteria (LAB) coexist in many traditional fermented foods, yet their interactions and effects on fermentation remain incompletely understood.
This study investigated the interaction between Saccharomyces cerevisiae X2180 and Leuconostoc mesenteroides LT38, a LAB associated with traditional sake starter fermentation, using a defined high-glucose co-culture model.
Compared with yeast monoculture, co-culture showed reduced CO₂ emission, lower ethanol production, slower glucose consumption, and reduced early yeast population expansion. Interestingly, lactic acid accumulation was higher in co-culture, but the addition of lactic acid alone did not reproduce the observed fermentation suppression.
Furthermore, preliminary experiments suggested that co-culture-derived supernatant affected subsequent yeast fermentation and LAB lactic acid production differently from monoculture-derived supernatants.
These findings suggest that co-culture-dependent changes in the extracellular environment may contribute to yeast–LAB interactions, providing a foundation for future transcriptomic investigations.

受賞団体名

日本生物工学会

関連資料

https://www.sbj.or.jp/2026/news/student_award_20261013.html

微生物インタラクション研究室

研究室紹介ページ：https://bsw3.naist.jp/courses/courses313.html
研究室ホームページ：https://bsw3.naist.jp/microbial_interaction/

（2026年11月09日掲載）