0000000000066797
AUTHOR
Purificación Carrasco
Arginase activity is a useful marker of nitrogen limitation during alcoholic fermentations.
Nitrogen deficiency in musts is one of the causes of sluggish or stuck fermentations. In this work we propose that arginase activity determination can be useful for detecting nitrogen starvation early in vinification. CAR1 and YGP1 genes are not specifically induced under conditions of nitrogen starvation. However, a significant increase in the enzymatic activity of arginase, the product of the CAR1 gene, is detected in vinifications carried out with musts containing limiting amounts of nitrogen. Moreover, on adding ammonia to a nitrogen-deficient vinification, even at late stages, this enzymatic activity is repressed, and growth rate is restored simultaneously. We also investigate the role…
Study of the First Hours of Microvinification by the Use of Osmotic Stress-response Genes as Probes
Summary When yeast cells are inoculated into grape must for vinification they find stress conditions because of osmolarity, which is due to very high sugar concentration, and pH lower than 4. In this work an analysis of the expression of three osmotic stress induced genes ( GPD1 , HSP12 and HSP104 ) under microvinification conditions is shown as a way to probe those stress situations and the regulatory mechanisms that control them. The results indicate that during the first hours of microvinification there is an increase in the GPD1 mRNA levels with a maximum about one hour after inoculation, and a decrease in the amount of HSP12 and HSP104 mRNAs, although with differences between them. The…
Analysis of the stress resistance of commercial wine yeast strains
Alcoholic fermentation is an essential step in wine production that is usually conducted by yeasts belonging to the species Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The ability to carry out vinification is largely influenced by the response of yeast cells to the stress conditions that affect them during this process. In this work, we present a systematic analysis of the resistance of 14 commercial S. cerevisiae wine yeast strains to heat shock, ethanol, oxidative, osmotic and glucose starvation stresses. Significant differences were found between these yeast strains under certain severe conditions, Vitilevure Pris Mouse and Lalvin T73 being the most resistant strains, while Fermiblanc arom SM102 and UCLM …
A membrane computing simulator of trans-hierarchical antibiotic resistance evolution dynamics in nested ecological compartments (ARES)
In this article, we introduce ARES (Antibiotic Resistance Evolution Simulator) a software device that simulates P-system model scenarios with five types of nested computing membranes oriented to emulate a hierarchy of eco-biological compartments, i.e. a) peripheral ecosystem; b) local environment; c) reservoir of supplies; d) animal host; and e) host's associated bacterial organisms (microbiome). Computational objects emulating molecular entities such as plasmids, antibiotic resistance genes, antimicrobials, and/or other substances can be introduced into this framework and may interact and evolve together with the membranes, according to a set of pre-established rules and specifications. AR…
A novel approach for the improvement of stress resistance in wine yeasts
During wine production yeast cells are affected by several stress conditions that could affect their viability and fermentation efficiency. In this work we describe a novel genetic manipulation strategy designed to improve stress resistance in wine yeasts. This strategy involves modifying the expression of the transcription factor MSN2, which plays an important role in yeast stress responses. The promoter in one of the genomic copies of this gene has been replaced by the promoter of the SPI1 gene, encoding for a cell wall protein of unknown function. SPI1 is expressed at late phases of growth and is regulated by Msn2p. This modification allows self-induction of MSN2 expression. MSN2 gene tr…
Diet shapes the gut microbiota of the omnivorous cockroach Blattella germanica
The gut microbiota of insects contributes positively to the physiology of its host mainly by participating in food digestion, protecting against pathogens, or provisioning vitamins or amino acids, but the dynamics of this complex ecosystem is not well understood so far. In this study, we have characterized the gut microbiota of the omnivorous cockroach Blattella germanica by pyrosequencing the hypervariable regions V1-V3 of the 16S rRNA gene of the whole bacterial community. Three diets differing in the protein content (0, 24 and 50%) were tested at two time points in lab-reared individuals. In addition, the gut microbiota of wild adult cockroaches was also analyzed. In contrast to the high…