High degree of correlation between molecular polymorphism and geographic origin of wine yeast strains.
OBJECTIVE
To guarantee the endemic genetic background of the isolates obtained in yeast isolation programs, it is necessary to differentiate between endemic and commercial strains because the progressive use of commercial yeast in wine areas around the world would affect the autochthonous yeast populations.


RESULTS
Mitochondrial DNA restriction analysis, electrophoretic karyotyping and random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD) were evaluated as experimental approaches to correlate genomic polymorphism and geographic origin of native wine yeast strains. The three molecular methods were capable of detecting a European commercial strain among native Chilean strains; however, RAPD proved to have the best performance.


CONCLUSIONS
The molecular polymorphism analysis is useful to evaluate the geographical origin of native yeast isolates and confirms or refutes the genetic background of currently marketed strains.


CONCLUSIONS
This study permits a genetic characterization of native yeast populations and confirms its utility as a tool for evaluating if a native isolate derives from the region where it was collected, permitting, furthermore, to develop studies on the evolution of native yeast populations and to evaluate the effect of introduced yeasts on these populations.
Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología de Alimentos, Facultad Tecnológica, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Chile. cmartinez@usach.cl
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C
Martínez
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Cosgaya
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C
Vásquez
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Gac
A
A
Ganga
D002677:Chile; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics; D005060:Europe; D019649:Food Industry; D007621:Karyotyping; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D019105:Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Technique; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000235:genetics*; D014920:Wine
D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial