6533b837fe1ef96bd12a278f

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Screening of Hanseniaspora Strains for the Production of Enzymes with Potential Interest for Winemaking

subject

description

Some non-Saccharomyces yeasts, including Hanseniaspora, participate in the first stages of wine fermentation. Besides their importance in the wine production process some of these yeasts have been described to be potential producers of hydrolytic enzymes to industrial level. In this work, we pretend to evaluate the technological abilities of the Hanseniaspora strains deposited in the Spanish Type Culture Collection (CECT). First of all, we considered verification of the correct identification of the strains using several miniaturized biochemical systems and molecular techniques (PCR, RFLP and sequencing of the ribosomal D1/D2 region). The results allowed us to verify the correct adscription of the 26 strains included in this study, which exhibited concordant profiles of restriction with one of the three species described in previous studies (H. occidentalis, H. osmophila and H. valbyensis). Some other strains assigned to the species (H. uvarum, H. vineae and H. guilliermondii) showed at least two different profiles. The other objective of this study was to perform an initial screening to characterize both at quantitative and qualitative levels, the ability of these yeasts to produce valuable enzymes for wine fermentation (increase of aroma) and other applications. The more important enzymatic activities detected were β-glucosidase, β-xylosidase, and protease. The HU7, HU8, HV1, HV3, HO2 and HOC1 strains showed high levels of β-glucosidase and β-xylosidase activity, whereas some strains (HG1, HG3, HVA1, HOC 3 and HOC4 were useful for protease production.