Overproduction of 2-phenylethanol by industrial yeasts to improve organoleptic properties of bakers' products.

2-Phenylethanol (PEA), an important alcohol derived from phenylalanine, is involved in aroma and flavour of bakers' products. Four spontaneous mutants of an industrial bakers' yeast, V1 strain, were isolated for their resistance to p-fluoro-DL-phenylalanine (PFP), a toxic analogue of L-phenylalanine. Mutants overproduced this amino acid and showed variations in their internal pool for several other amino acids. Moreover, a rise in PEA production after growth in industrial medium (MAB) was observed in three of the mutants, although their growth and fermentative capacities were slightly impaired. However, concentration of PEA remained higher during dough fermentation and also after baking, thus improving taste and aroma in bread.

Overexpression of stress-related genes enhances cell viability and velum formation in Sherry wine yeasts.

Flor formation and flor endurance have been related to ability by Saccharomyces cerevisiae flor yeasts to resist hostile conditions such as oxidative stress and the presence of acetaldehyde and ethanol. Ethanol and acetaldehyde toxicity give rise to formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and loss of cell viability. Superoxide dismutases Sod1p and Sod2p and other proteins such as Hsp12p are involved in oxidative stress tolerance. In this study, genes SOD1, SOD2, and HSP12 were overexpressed in flor yeast strains FJF206, FJF414 and B16. In the SOD1 and SOD2 transformant strains superoxide dismutases encoded by genes SOD1 and SOD2 increased their specific activity considerably as a direct result of overexpression of genes SOD1 and SOD2, indirectly, catalase, glutathione reductase, and glutathione peroxidase activities increased too. The HSP12 transformant strains showed higher levels of glutathione peroxidase and reductase activities. These transformant strains showed an increase in intracellular glutathione content, a reduction in peroxidized lipid concentration, and higher resistance to oxidative stress conditions. As a result, flor formation by these strains took place more rapidly than by their parental strains, velum being thicker and with higher percentages of viable cells. In addition, a slight decrease in ethanol and glycerol concentrations, and an increase in acetaldehyde were detected in wines matured under velum formed by transformant strains, as compared to their parental strains. In the industry, velum formed by transformant strains with increased viability may result in acceleration of both metabolism and wine aging, thus reducing time needed for wine maturation.

Selection of an autochthonous Saccharomyces strain starter for alcoholic fermentation of Sherry base wines.

Several indigenous Saccharomyces strains from musts were isolated in the Jerez de la Frontera region, at the end of spontaneous fermentation, in order to select the most suitable autochthonous yeast starter, during the 2007 vintage. Five strains were chosen for their oenological abilities and fermentative kinetics to elaborate a Sherry base wine. The selected autochthonous strains were characterized by molecular methods: electrophoretic karyotype and random amplified polymorphic DNA-polymerase chain reaction (RAPD-PCR) and by physiological parameters: fermentative power, ethanol production, sugar consumption, acidity and volatile compound production, sensory quality, killer phenotype, desiccation, and sulphur dioxide tolerance. Laboratory- and pilot-scale fermentations were conducted with those autochthonous strains. One of them, named J4, was finally selected over all others for industrial fermentations. The J4 strain, which possesses exceptional fermentative properties and oenological qualities, prevails in industrial fermentations, and becomes the principal biological agent responsible for winemaking. Sherry base wine, industrially manufactured by means of the J4 strain, was analyzed, yielding, together with its sensory qualities, final average values of 0.9 g/l sugar content, 13.4 % (v/v) ethanol content and 0.26 g/l volatile acidity content; apart from a high acetaldehyde production, responsible for the distinctive aroma of "Fino". This base wine was selected for "Fino" Sherry elaboration and so it was fortified; it is at present being subjected to biological aging by the so-called "flor" yeasts. The "flor" velum formed so far is very high quality. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study covering from laboratory to industrial scale of characterization and selection of autochthonous starter intended for alcoholic fermentation in Sherry base wines. Since the 2010 vintage, the indigenous J4 strain is employed to industrially manufacture a homogeneous, exceptional Sherry base wine for "Fino" Sherry production.

Transcriptional regulation of fermentative and respiratory metabolism in Saccharomyces cerevisiae industrial bakers' strains.

Bakers' yeast-producing companies grow cells under respiratory conditions, at a very high growth rate. Some desirable properties of bakers' yeast may be altered if fermentation rather than respiration occurs during biomass production. That is why differences in gene expression patterns that take place when industrial bakers' yeasts are grown under fermentative, rather than respiratory conditions, were examined. Macroarray analysis of V1 strain indicated changes in gene expression similar to those already described in laboratory Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains: repression of most genes related to respiration and oxidative metabolism and derepression of genes related to ribosome biogenesis and stress resistance in fermentation. Under respiratory conditions, genes related to the glyoxylate and Krebs cycles, respiration, gluconeogenesis, and energy production are activated. DOG21 strain, a partly catabolite-derepressed mutant derived from V1, displayed gene expression patterns quite similar to those of V1, although lower levels of gene expression and changes in fewer number of genes as compared to V1 were both detected in all cases. However, under fermentative conditions, DOG21 mutant significantly increased the expression of SNF1 -controlled genes and other genes involved in stress resistance, whereas the expression of the HXK2 gene, involved in catabolite repression, was considerably reduced, according to the pleiotropic stress-resistant phenotype of this mutant. These results also seemed to suggest that stress-resistant genes control desirable bakers' yeast qualities.

Increased biomass production of industrial bakers' yeasts by overexpression of Hap4 gene.

HAP4 encodes a transcriptional activator of respiration-related genes and so, redirection from fermentation to respiration flux should give rise to an increase in biomass production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae transformants that overexpress HAP4. With this aim, three bakers' yeasts, that is, V1 used for lean doughs, its 2-deoxy-D-glucose resistant derivative DOG21, and V3 employed for sweet doughs, were transformed with integrative cassettes that carried HAP4 gene under the control of constitutive promoter pTEF2; in addition VTH, DTH and 3TH transformants were selected and characterized. Transformants showed increased expression of HAP4 and respiration-related genes such as QCR7 and QCR8 with regard to parental, and similar expression of SUC2 and MAL12; these genes are relevant in bakers' industry. Invertase (Suc2p) and maltase (Mal12p) activities, growth and sugar consumption rates in laboratory (YPD) or industrial media (MAB) were also comparable in bakers' strains and their transformants, but VTH, DTH and 3TH increased their final biomass production by 9.5, 5.0 and 5.0% respectively as compared to their parentals in MAB. Furthermore, V1 and its transformant VTH had comparable capacity to ferment lean doughs (volume increase rate and final volume) while V3 and its transformant 3TH fermented sweet doughs in a similar manner. Therefore transformants possessed increased biomass yield and appropriate characteristics to be employed in bakers' industry because they lacked drug resistant markers and bacterial DNA, and were genetically stable.

pH and Pac1 control development and antifungal activity in Trichoderma harzianum.

In Trichoderma harzianum CECT 2413 external pH regulates essential functions such as growth rate, sporulation, cell and colony morphology, pattern of secreted proteins, gene expression or mycoparasitism-related enzymatic activities. pH regulation is mediated by the transcriptional factor Pac1 (homologous to PacC regulator in other fungi), encoded by pac1 whose expression increases with pH. Two pac1 mutants have been obtained from CECT 2413: P2.32, that possesses an allele of pac1 active at any pH, and R13, that does not express pac1 due to interferent RNA. Cell morphology, sporulation and growth rate are optimal for strain P2.32 at pH 7.5 and for strain R13 at pH 3.0, mimicking alkaline and acidic conditions, respectively. Pac1 regulates some genes involved in antagonism: chit42 chitinase, papA protease, gtt1 glucose permease, and qid74 cell wall protein. Furthermore, Pac1 modulates T. harzianum antifungal activity since wild type and mutants inhibit several phytopathogenic fungal strains at various degrees in different assays.

QID74 Cell wall protein of Trichoderma harzianum is involved in cell protection and adherence to hydrophobic surfaces.

Trichoderma is widely used as biocontrol agent against phytopathogenic fungi, and as biofertilizer because of its ability to establish mycorriza-like association with plants. The key factor to the ecological success of this genus is the combination of very active mycoparasitic mechanisms plus effective defense strategies induced in plants. This work, different from most of the studies carried out that address the attacking mechanisms, focuses on elucidating how Trichoderma is able to tolerate hostile conditions. A gene from Trichoderma harzianum CECT 2413, qid74, was strongly expressed during starvation of carbon or nitrogen sources; it encoded a cell wall protein of 74kDa that plays a significant role in mycelium protection. qid74 was originally isolated and characterized, in a previous work, by a differential hybridization approach under simulated mycoparasitism conditions. Heterologous expression of Qid74 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae indicated that the protein, located in the cell wall, interfered with mating and sporulation but not with cell integrity. The qid74 gene was disrupted by homologous recombination and it was overexpressed by isolating transformants selected for the amdS gene that carried several copies of qid74 gene under the control of the pki promoter. Disruptants and transformants showed similar growth rate and viability when they were cultivated in different media, temperatures and osmolarities, or were subjected to different abiotic stress conditions. However, disruptants produced about 70% mass yield under any condition and were substantially more sensitive than the wild type to cell wall degradation by different lytic preparations. Transformants had similar mass yield and were more resistant to lytic enzymes but more sensitive to copper sulfate than the wild type. When experiments of adherence to hydrophobic surfaces were carried out, the disruptants had a reduced capacity to adhere, whereas that capacity in the overproducer transformants was slightly higher than that of the wild type. Results point to a significant role for Qid74 both in cell wall protection and adhesion to hydrophobic surfaces.

Biocontrol mechanisms of Trichoderma strains / Mecanismos de biocontrol de cepas de Trichoderma

The genus Trichoderma comprises a great number of fungal strains that act as biological control agents, the antagonistic properties of which are based on the activation of multiple mechanisms. Trichoderma strains exert biocontrol against fungal phytopathogens either indirectly, by competing for nutrients and space, modifying the environmental conditions, or promoting plant growth and plant defensive mechanisms and antibiosis, or directly, by mechanisms such as mycoparasitism. These indirect and direct mechanisms may act coordinately and their importance in the biocontrol process depends on the Trichoderma strain, the antagonized fungus, the crop plant, and the environmental conditions, including nutrient availability, pH, temperature, and iron concentration. Activation of each mechanism implies the production of specific compounds and metabolites, such as plant growth factors, hydrolytic enzymes, siderophores, antibiotics, and carbon and nitrogen permeases. These metabolites can be either overproduced or combined with appropriate biocontrol strains in order to obtain new formulations for use in more efficient control of plant diseases and postharvest applications (AU)

El género Trichoderma está integrado por un gran número decepas fúngicas que actúan como agentes de control biológico y cuyas propiedades antagónicas se basan en la activación de mecanismos muy diversos. Las cepas de Trichoderma pueden ejercer el biocontrol de hongos fitopatógenos indirectamente, compitiendo por el espacio y los nutrientes, modificando las condiciones ambientales, estimulando el crecimiento de las plantas y sus mecanismos de defensa o produciendo antibióticos. También pueden realizar ese biocontrol directamente, mediante micoparasitismo. Estos mecanismos pueden actuar de forma coordinada y su importancia en los procesos de biocontrol depende de la cepa de Trichoderma, del hongo al que antagoniza, del tipo de cultivo y de condiciones ambientales tales como la disponibilidad de nutrientes, el pH, la temperatura o la concentración de hierro.La activación de cada uno de los mecanismos implica la producción de metabolitos y compuestos específicos tales como factores de crecimiento de plantas, enzimas hidrolíticas, sideróforos, antibióticos y permeasas de carbono y nitrógeno. Estos metabolitos pueden sobreexpresarse o combinarse con cepas de biocontrol apropiadas, a fin de obtener nuevas formulaciones que puedan ser más eficaces en el control de enfermedades de plantas y en la protección de frutos post-cosecha (AU)

Genetic analysis of apomictic wine yeasts.

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae wine yeast IFI256 was selected because of its high fermentative capacity and tolerance to ethanol. Sporulation of the IFI256 strain produced two-spore asci unable to conjugate, but able to sporulate again and the spores produced two-spore asci in all cases. That process was studied for at least five generations. The electrophoretic karyotype showed a pattern of 21 chromosomal bands, which was identical both in the parental and in all the descendants analyzed, from the first to the fifth generation. The DNA content of the parental and the descendants was of 1.7 n, which indicates that the capacity for sporulation shown by all descendants was due to apomixis rather than homothallism of the strain. Different concentrations of glucose and acetate and the addition of zinc salts to the presporulation and sporulation media increased the frequency of four-spore asci by up to 9%. However, the tetrads formed were in fact two dyads that resulted from induced endomitosis. Crosses of IFI256 with laboratory strains produced hybrids giving four-spore asci after sporulation, thus indicating the mutation to be recessive. Transformation of IFI256 with plasmids carrying either SPO12 or SPO13 functional genes and crosses with strains carrying functional or mutated SPO12 and/or SPO13 genes indicated that IFI256 carries several mutations, one of which was located to the SPO12 gene. Parasexual cycles and chromosome loss induced after crossing IFI256 with cir0 strains indicated that apomictic mutations were exclusively located at chromosome VIII. The high frequency of wine strains which are apomictic suggests apomixis to be an advantageous phenotype which allows the formation of stress-resistant asci but prevents the loss of favored chromosomal rearrangements.

Biocontrol mechanisms of Trichoderma strains.

The genus Trichoderma comprises a great number of fungal strains that act as biological control agents, the antagonistic properties of which are based on the activation of multiple mechanisms. Trichoderma strains exert biocontrol against fungal phytopathogens either indirectly, by competing for nutrients and space, modifying the environmental conditions, or promoting plant growth and plant defensive mechanisms and antibiosis, or directly, by mechanisms such as mycoparasitism. These indirect and direct mechanisms may act coordinately and their importance in the biocontrol process depends on the Trichoderma strain, the antagonized fungus, the crop plant, and the environmental conditions, including nutrient availability, pH, temperature, and iron concentration. Activation of each mechanism implies the production of specific compounds and metabolites, such as plant growth factors, hydrolytic enzymes, siderophores, antibiotics, and carbon and nitrogen permeases. These metabolites can be either overproduced or combined with appropriate biocontrol strains in order to obtain new formulations for use in more efficient control of plant diseases and postharvest applications.

New Saccharomyces cerevisiae baker's yeast displaying enhanced resistance to freezing.

Three procedures were used to obtain new Saccharomyces cerevisiae baker's yeasts with increased storage stability at -20, 4, 22, and 30 degrees C. The first used mitochondria from highly ethanol-tolerant wine yeast, which were transferred to baker's strains. Viability of the heteroplasmons was improved shortly after freezing. However, after prolonged storage, viability dramatically decreased and was accompanied by an increase in the frequency of respiratory-deficient (petite) mutant formation. This indicated that mitochondria were not stable and were incompatible with the nucleus. The strains tested regained their original resistance to freezing after recovering their own mitochondria. The second procedure used hybrid formation after protoplast fusion and isolation on selective media of fusants from baker's yeast meiotic products resistant to parafluorphenylalanine and cycloheximide, respectively. No hybrids were obtained when using the parentals, probably due to the high ploidy of the baker's strains. Hybrids obtained from nonisogenic strains manifested in all cases a resistance to freezing intermediate between those of their parental strains. Hybrids from crosses between meiotic products of the same strain were always more sensitive than their parentals. The third method was used to develop baker's yeast mutants resistant to 2-deoxy-d-glucose (DOG) and deregulated for maltose and sucrose metabolism. Mutant DOG21 displayed a slight increase in trehalose content and viability both in frozen doughs and during storage at 4 and 22 degrees C. This mutant also displayed a capacity to ferment, under laboratory conditions, both lean and sweet fresh and frozen doughs. For industrial uses, fermented lean and sweet bakery products, both from fresh and frozen doughs obtained with mutant DOG21, were of better quality with regard to volume, texture, and organoleptic properties than those produced by the wild type.

Acetaldehyde and ethanol are responsible for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) in flor yeasts.

Flor yeasts grow and survive in fino sherry wine where the frequency of respiratory-deficient (petite) mutants is very low. Mitochondria from flor yeasts are highly acetaldehyde- and ethanol-tolerant, and resistant to oxidative stress. However, restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) of mtDNA from flor yeast populations is very high and reflects variability induced by the high concentrations of acetaldehyde and ethanol of sherry wine on mtDNA. mtDNA RFLP increases as the concentration of these compounds also increases, but is followed by a total loss of mtDNA in petite cells. Yeasts with functional mitochondria (grande) are target of continuous variability, so that flor yeast mtDNA can evolve extremely rapidly and may serve as a reservoir of genetic diversity, whereas petite mutants are eventually eliminated because metabolism in sherry wine is oxidative.