Two interbreeding populations ofSaccharomyces cerevisiaestrains coexist in cachaça fermentations from Brazil

Abstract

In this study, the phylogenetic relationships between cachaça strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae isolated from different geographical areas in Brazil were obtained on the basis of sequences of one mitochondrial (COX2) and three nuclear (EGT2, CAT8, and BRE5) genes. This analysis allowed us to demonstrate that different types of strains coexist in cachaça fermentations: wine strains, exhibiting alleles related or identical to those present in European wine strains; native strains, containing alleles similar to those found in strains isolated from traditional fermentations from Latin America, North America, Malaysian, Japan, or West Africa; and their intraspecific hybrids or 'mestizo' strains, heterozygous for both types of alleles. Wine strains and hybrids with high proportions of wine-type alleles predominate in southern and southeastern Brazil, where cachaça production coexists with winemaking. The high frequency of 'wine-type' alleles in these regions is probably due to the arrival of wine immigrant strains introduced from Europe in the nearby wineries due to the winemaking practices. However, in north and northeastern states, regions less suited or not suited for vine growing and winemaking, wine-type alleles are much less frequent because 'mestizo' strains with intermediate or higher proportions of 'native-type' alleles are predominant.

Genetic Polymorphism in Wine Yeasts: Mechanisms and Methods for Its Detection

“…Magwene et al (2011) proposed that the high levels of heterozygosity observed in clinical and industrial strains most likely resulted from outcrossing between genetically diverse lineages, mediated by unaware strain trafficking due human activity. In addition to the presence of mosaic monosporic strains (Liti et al, 2009), this is also supported by the observation of two populations of S. cerevisiae , native and introduced wine strains, coexisting and interbreeding in Cachaça fermentations (Badotti et al, 2014). …”

Saccharomyces eubayanusandSaccharomyces uvarumassociated with the fermentation ofAraucaria araucanaseeds in Patagonia

“…The use of wine or bakery yeasts has been reported in the fermentation of agave juice to produce Tequila (Aguilar-Uscanga et al, 2007) and in the fermentation of sugarcane juice to produce Cachac ßa (Marini et al, 2009). The use of commercial bakery or wine yeasts in the industrial production of traditional beverages results not only in lower quality products properties with less desirable sensory attributes (Marini et al, 2009), but also in a modification of the yeast microbiota by means of a replacement of the native Saccharomyces strains or the formation of intraspecific hybrids between native and wine yeasts (Badotti et al, 2014).…”

Chemical Typification of the Sugarcane Spirits Produced in São Paulo State

“…The cachaça production processes are among the vectors that chemically define the origin of the distillate (Galinaro and others ; Reche, and others ; Cardeal and others ; De Souza and others ; Serafim and others ,b; Da Silva and others ; Badotti and others ; Serafim and Franco ). For the sugarcane spirits that were distilled in alembics, although 2 clusters can be defined based on the chemical composition similarities, a correlation between the chemical composition and the geographical origin cannot be observed.…”

“…The effect of this production volume and simultaneous market expansion improves cachaça production practices, which leads to tighter quality controls in the chemical and organoleptic qualities of the distillate. As has been observed for cheese, coffee, wines, olive oil, tequila, and orujo (Krivan and others ; Breas and others ; Haswell and Walmsley ; Angerosa and others ; Aparicio ; Manca and others ; Ogrinc and others 2003; Pillonel and others ; García‐Martín and others ; Ceballos‐Magaña and others ), there is growing interest from consumers regarding information on the provenance of Brazilian sugarcane spirits (Fernandes and others ; Galinaro and others ; Reche, and others ; Cardeal and others ; De Souza and others ; Serafim and others ,b; Da Silva and others ; Badotti and others ; Granato and others ; Serafim and Franco ).…”