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, *
1 Laboratorio de Microbiología y Genética, CASEM, Departamento de Biomedicina, Biotecnología y Salud Pública. Universidad de Cádiz. Polígono Río San Pedro s/n, 11510 Puerto Real, Cádiz, Spain
2 Bioorganic Research and Services, S.L.-Bionaturis, Centro Andaluz de Biología del Desarrollo, Sevilla, Spain
3 Bodegas Barbadillo S. L. C/ Luis Eguilar, 11540, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Cádiz, Spain


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Creative Commons License
© 2013 Rodríguez et al.

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.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Laboratorio de Microbiología y Genética, CASEM, Departamento de Biomedicina, Biotecnología y Salud Pública. Universidad de Cádiz. Polígono Río San Pedro s/n, 11510 Puerto Real, Cádiz, Spain; Tel.: +34 956 01 61 56; Fax: +34 956 01 61 80; E-mail: jesusmanuel.cantoral@uca.es


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.

Keywords: flor yeast, sherry wines, pure culture, biofilm growth, acetaldehyde.