Genomic characterization of Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains isolated from wine-producing areas in South America.
OBJECTIVE
The wide use of yeast inoculum for wine fermentations permit the spreading of commercial Saccharomyces strains in wine areas all over the world. To study the impact of this practice on the autochthonous yeast populations it is necessary to have tools that permit the evaluation of the geographical origin of native isolates and differentiate them from commercial strains.


RESULTS
Electrophoretic karyotyping and mitochondrial DNA restriction analysis were used to characterize the genome of native S. cerevisiae isolates associated to wine from three countries in South America. Both methods revealed differences in the genomic structure between these populations, in addition to differences between sub-populations collected in wine-producing areas in Chile.


CONCLUSIONS
Our data support that molecular polymorphism analysis may be useful to evaluate the geographical origin of native isolates of yeast strains for industrial use. Furthermore, these findings are in agreement with the idea of a clonal mode of reproduction of wine yeasts in natural environments.


CONCLUSIONS
This study permits the characterization of native yeast isolates in relation to their geographical origin. This procedure could be used as a tool for evaluating if a native isolate derives from the region were it was collected or if it is a strain derived from a commercial strain by microevolution.
Martínez
C
C
Centro de Estudios en Ciencia y Tecnología de Alimentos (CECTA), Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Chile. cmartine@usach.cl
Gac
S
S
Lavín
A
A
Ganga
M
M
D044822:Biodiversity; D002677:Chile; D015825:Chromosomes, Fungal / Q000235:genetics; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting / Q000379:methods; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000235:genetics; D016521:Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field / Q000379:methods; D005516:Food Microbiology; D005838:Genotype; D010568:Peru; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D014583:Uruguay; D014920:Wine / Q000382:microbiology*
D004271:DNA, Fungal