_applied_  
_sciences_  
_Editorial_  
Special Issue on Role of Microbes in Agriculture and Food  
**[PERSON] \({}^{\star}\)\({}^{\copyright}\) and [PERSON] \({}^{\copyright}\)**  
Department of Biotechnology, Microbiology and Human Nutrition, University of Life Sciences in Lublin,  
Skromna 8, 20-704 Lublin, Poland; [EMAIL_ADDRESS]  
\({}^{\star}\) Correspondence: [EMAIL_ADDRESS]  
Microorganisms play an important role in human life by influencing agricultural crops, which are raw materials used in the production of food. Agriculture is positively impacted by microorganisms that promote the welfare of plants, including those that promote better growth and yields, improve soil condition, and fight pathogens and crop pests. In food production, the role of beneficial microorganisms is primarily to give favorable sensory characteristics to food, while also preserving it and imparting functional properties, e.g., probiotic properties. Starter cultures and probiotic strains play such a role. Nevertheless, much research is still being carried out on the acquisition of new isolates from the environment and food products in order to gain an understanding of their metabolism and properties, and thus, compose new cultures for use in the production of traditional and functional foods. This Special Issue is in line with these trends and presents articles that focus on beneficial microorganisms and their possible future use as starter cultures or biopreparations for agriculture. The subject matter is very extensive, so this issue only briefly presents the results obtained by numerous research centers around the world. A total of six papers (five research papers and one review paper), from various fields of microorganism application in agriculture and food, are presented in this Special Issue. Individual topics include the role of lactic acid bacteria, including probiotic and potentially probiotic bacteria added to food products of animal and plant origin (4); the microbiota found in spontaneously fermented wines (1); and plant growth-promoting actinomycetes (1). In their review paper, [PERSON] and [PERSON] [1] summarized the formation of taste and aroma compounds, which are generated via various metabolic pathways from many precursors present in raw materials during the fermentation of Brassica vegetables. The authors closely investigated the flavors of two of the most commonly eaten fermented Brassica products worldwide: sauerkraut and kimchi. They stated that metabolic profiling has gained some scientific attention, but more further efforts must be made to determine the effects of individual lactic acid bacteria on the formation of flavor-providing compounds. [PERSON] et al. [2] reversed the classic bottom-up approach of starter cultures to perform an in vitro evaluation of the probiotic properties of microbes that are already commercialized and employed in the dairy sector. They reported that some _L. plantarum_ and _L. rhamnus_ strains showed probiotic features, such as an ability to survive under simulated orogenesisintestinal stress; strong inhibitory activity against harmful bacteria; Caco-2 adhesion; and the exhibition of anti-inflammatory action against THP-1 macrophages by cell-free supernatants. Nonetheless, future in vivo studies are necessary to validate these observed beneficial properties and to evaluate any effect of the vehicle product on the probiotic properties. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [3] analyzed milk and milk products (pasteurized milk and yoghurts) do determine their composition of fatty acids, especially cisotrans11 C18:2 (CLA) acid; their mineral content; and their lipid quality indices. The results showed that milk pasteurization and milk fermentation with selected starter cultures enriched with _Bifidobacterium bifidum_ BB-12 had a significant impact on the fatty acid profile and on the micro- and macroelement content. The starter culture applied (FD-DVS YC-X16 Yo-Flexwith BB-12) caused a significant increase in CLA content.