Wien aroma modification by using the ATF1, ATF2 and ARO10 genes from non-conventional Saccharomyces species – Poster

Saccharomyces cerevisiae has got a privileged position in the winemaking. However, the yeast kingdom includes large number of species with unusual characteristics. The constant pressure on the companies to produce new wines with fresh and original qualities has resulted in the need to introduce new approaches in the wine production.
Recently the species S. kudriavzevii and S. uvarum (S. bayanus var. uvarum) and their hybrids with S. cerevisiae have shown very interesting oenological properties leading to higher production of certain aromatic compounds suggesting that they take advantage of the alleles distinct from S. cerevisiae. Based on this information we decided to compare the homologous genes from S. cerevisiae, S. kudriavzevii and S. uvarum involved in aroma compounds metabolic pathway. The comparison revealed that the most radical substitutions occur in the genes ARO10, ATF1 and ATF2. The roles of the different alleles were tested by cloning in wine S. cerevisiae T73 strains and the aroma profile was analyzed. We detected increase of the production of banana and fruity flavours, such as isoamyl alcohol, isobutanol and their esters. Obtained results suggest that the modification of overall wine aroma could be reached by substitution of a few nucleotids within certain genes.