Wine yeast genomics: outlining the genetic blueprint of wine yeast
Background
Every living cell contains DNA which is responsible for determining its inheritable traits. For example, in humans differences in eye and hair colour can be traced to variation in the DNA of each individual. Like these common differences in humans, differences in the winemaking properties of wine microorganisms such as yeast are ultimately attributable to differences in their DNA. Furthermore, all strain improvement programs rely on generating changes in DNA in order to isolate novel, genetically improved, strains. Understanding the genome of wine yeasts or bacteria is the key to understanding the genetic variation that is responsible for desirable properties. Once understood, this variation can be exploited to form ‘super’ yeasts that combine the desirable traits from several wine strains.
Progress
Until recently, genomic technologies were very costly and required infrastructure investment in the millions of dollars. However, with advances in DNA sequencing technology, genomics has now become accessible to organisations such as the AWRI. Given its potential benefits to the wine sector, we have initiated a genomics program whose first goal is to define the global genomic blueprint of wine yeast. As a starting point, the genome of the wine yeast strain AWRI1631 has been determined. This yeast was chosen as it will be the model organism for systems biology studies at the AWRI, and is the host organism for the construction of a Wine Yeast Genome Deletion Library.
The genome of AWRI1631 was compared to that of a laboratory yeast strain (S288c) in order to map out variation that might be responsible for the significant differences in winemaking potential of laboratory and wine yeasts. The former laboratory yeasts do not efficiently ferment grape must, let alone make good wine. An enormous amount of variation was shown to exist between the two strains, indicating that there might be thousands of differences that contribute to the desirable winemaking properties of AWRI1631 compared to the laboratory strain. This first step in outlining the genetic blueprint of a wine yeast clearly points the way ahead for wine yeast strain development programs.
Highlights
- Genome sequence of a wine yeast (AWRI1631) determined
- The wine yeast genome is significantly different to laboratory yeast
Project leader: Dr Paul Chambers
Project team members:
Publications:
1076 Borneman, A.R. Forgan, A.H. Pretorius, I.S. Chambers, P.J. Comparative genome analysis of a Saccharomyces cerevisiae wine strain. FEMS Yeast Res. 8(7): 1185-1195; 2008 (click here to order).
1100 Borneman, A.R. Forgan, A.H. Chambers, P.J. Pretorius, I.S. Unravelling the genetic blueprint of wine yeast. Aust. N.Z. Wine Ind. J. 23(5): 23-25; 2008 (click here to order).
1108 Borneman, A.R. Forgan, A.H. Chambers, P.J. Pretorius, I.S. Cracking the genetic code of wine yeast. WBM October: 41-43; 2008 (click here to order).