title: Isolation, selection, and characterization of highly ethanol-tolerant strains of Oenococcus oeni from south Catalonia.
abstract: Twenty-one strains of Oenococcus oeni were isolated during the malolactic fermentation of wines from south Catalonia. Due to their high ethanol tolerance (14 %, or more), these strains may serve as promising starters. The strains were screened by assays in a wine-like medium and by their co-inoculation in wine, resulting in the selection of well-performing strains, subsequently shown not to produce the main biogenic amines and lacking the genes involved in their synthesis. The genetic diversity of the isolates was studied by multilocus sequence typing (MLST), in which seven housekeeping genes were sequenced. Although the concatenated allelic profile of some strains was the same, the profiles obtained by random amplification of polymorphic DNA together with the variable number of tandem repeats at several loci showed that none of the strains were identical. A phylogenetic tree was constructed based on MLST with the seven genes and clearly showed two phylogroups, in accordance with previous studies. The best-performing strains occurred in members of both subgroups, suggesting that the grouping of housekeeping genes is not directly related to adaptation and ethanol tolerance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Faculty of Oenology, University Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain.
authors.forename: Meritxell
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bordas
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Faculty of Oenology, University Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain.
authors.forename: Isabel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Araque
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Faculty of Oenology, University Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain.
authors.forename: Joan O
authors.initials: JO
authors.lastname: Alegret
authors.affiliation: University of Bordeaux, Institute of Vines and Wine Sciences, Villenave d'Ornon, France.
authors.forename: Mariette
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: El Khoury
authors.affiliation: University of Bordeaux, Institute of Vines and Wine Sciences, Villenave d'Ornon, France.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lucas
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Faculty of Oenology, University Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rozès
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Faculty of Oenology, University Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Reguant
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Faculty of Oenology, University Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain.
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bordons
mesh_terms: D000431:Ethanol / Q000378:metabolism*; D005285:Fermentation; D005602:France; D014644:Genetic Variation; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing; D056585:Oenococcus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism*; D010802:Phylogeny; D014920:Wine / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D000431:Ethanol