RESEARCH ARTICLE
Enological Behaviour of Biofilms Formed by Genetically-Characterized Strains of Sherry Yeast
María E. Rodríguez1, †, Juan J. Infante2, †, Juan J. Mesa3, †, Laureana Rebordinos1, Jesús M. Cantoral1, *
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2013Volume: 7
First Page: 23
Last Page: 29
Publisher ID: TOBIOTJ-7-23
DOI: 10.2174/1874070701307010023
Article History:
Received Date: 08/06/2013Revision Received Date: 19/09/2013
Acceptance Date: 19/09/2013
Electronic publication date: 18/10/2013
Collection year: 2013
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
The flor yeasts (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) form a biofilm, known as flor velum, on the surface of fino-type sherry wine at the end of the alcoholic fermentation. These film-forming yeasts are responsible for the oxidative transformation of alcohol to acetaldehyde, together with other reactions, which produce the characteristic flavours and aromas of these wines. In this study, we examine the enological behaviour of eight flor yeast strains biofilms in biological aging experiments carried out in the laboratory. Strains with identical chromosomal and mitochondrial DNA patterns and the same origin showed a more closely-related enological behaviour. But the kinetics of growth and acetaldehyde accumulation in the wine were found to be strain-dependent. Moreover, some strains were marked by high acetaldehyde accumulation in their pure cultures during the various phases of the biofilm development. These results provide valuable knowledge for planning technical strategies to improve the biological aging process in the sherry wine industry.