Breeding strategies for combining fermentative qualities and reducing off-flavor production in a wine yeast model

• Published in: FEMS yeast research Vol. 6; no. 2; pp. 268 - 279
• Main Authors: Marullo, Philippe, Bely, Marina, Masneuf-Pomarède, Isabelle, Pons, Monique, Aigle, Michel, Dubourdieu, Denis
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Science Ltd 01.03.2006; Blackwell Publishing Ltd; Oxford University Press
• Subjects: animals; breeding; breeds; DNA Shuffling; Fermentation; fermentation kinetics; Food Microbiology; Genetic crosses; genetic improvement; Heterosis; Hybridization; hybrids; Off flavor; off flavors; off‐flavor production; parents; Plant breeding; progeny; quantitative distribution; transgressive segregation; varieties; Wine; Wine - microbiology; Wine - standards; wine yeasts; winemaking; wines; Yeasts - genetics; Yeasts - metabolism; quantitative distribution; fermentation kinetics; off-flavor production; breeding; wine yeasts
• ISSN: 1567-1356; 1567-1364
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1567-1364.2006.00034.x

In agricultural sciences, breeding strategies have historically been used to select new, optimized plant varieties or animal breeds. Similar strategies are possible for genetic improvement of wine yeasts. We optimized 11 relevant enological traits in a single clone using successive hybridization and segregation steps. A hybrid obtained by crossing two parent strains derived from commercial wine yeasts showed that some of the traits were readily optimized. Dominance[solidus]recessivity, heterosis and transgression were observed among 51 segregating progeny. On the basis of this information, all the optimal characters from both parents were combined in a single strain following two targeted sexual crosses. This article presents a powerful methodology for obtaining a single wine strain with numerous fermentative qualities that does not produce off-flavors.