Transgenic wine yeast technology comes of age: is it time for transgenic wine?

Abstract

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the main yeast responsible for alcoholic fermentation of grape juice during wine making. This makes wine strains of this species perfect targets for the improvement of wine technology and quality. Progress in winemaking has been achieved through the use of selected yeast strains, as well as genetic improvement of wine yeast strains through the sexual and pararexual cycles, random mutagenesis and genetic engineering. Development of genetically engineered wine yeasts, their potential application, and factors affecting their commercial viability will be discussed in this review.

Progress in Metabolic Engineering of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

“…There are numerous examples of genetically modified wine yeast strains, and previous approaches have been well described in other, including quite recent, reviews (48,71,99,259,(282)(283)(284)307). Targets for wine yeast genetic improvements are divided into fermentation performance, wine processing efficiency, growth prevention of wine-spoiling microorganisms, sensory quality, and wholesomeness.…”

Saccharomyces cerevisiae KNU5377 Stress Response during High-Temperature Ethanol Fermentation

“…The high toxicity of endogenously produced ethanol reduces cell viability, growth rate, and fermentation rate. Many mechanisms have been developed to help organisms withstand and/or prevent ethanol-induced damage during fermentation, including crossstress protection; yeast hybrids based on enological characterization (Belloch et al, 2008); membrane remodeling via changes in membrane (palmitoleic acid, oleic acid, and ergosterol) and cell wall composition (fatty acid, lipid, and isoprenoid metabolism); accumulation of amino acids (proline and tryptophan) and storage solutes (trehalose and glycogen) (Zhao and Bai, 2009); expression of molecular chaperones; transcriptional activation of V-ATPase and peroxisomal functions; enhancement of NADPH regeneration and redox balance (Cebollero et al, 2007;Ding et al, 2009;Orozco et al, 2012); genetic improvement through sexual cycle, parasexual hybridization and genetic engineering; and transcriptome remodeling of transcription factors, stress-related genes, and genes involved in signal transduction (Gibson et al, 2007;Ma and Liu, 2010a;Stanley et al, 2010). However, this approach has the intrinsic limitation that yeast adapts to different metabolic environments such as a high concentration of ethanol during fermentation.…”

Estrategias de obtención de híbridos de levaduras para vinificaciones a bajas temperaturas

“…El uso de OGMs en alimentos se encuentra estrictamente legislado en muchos países [21], además de existir un cierto grado de reticencia del público en general al consumo de estos alimentos [22]. En este marco, se ha demostrado que el proceso natural de rare-mating puede utilizarse para la generación de híbridos de manera relativamente sencilla no considerados OGMs [11].…”