Testing grapes and wines for naturally occurring mutagenic compounds: A Review

Some phenolics, esters, nitro-compounds and mold metabolites that have been shown to be mutagenic or carcinogenic have been detected in musts and wines. The Jow concentrations of these compounds in musts and wines are similar to those found in other fruit juices and fermented products. The occurrence, physiology, dose-response significance and methods for mutagenicity and carcinogenicity screening of musts and wines are discussed

Improved techniques for study of caratenoid intermediates

Improved techniques for study of caratenoid intermediate

Mite control for Neurospora lobs

Mite contro

Association between Grape Yeast Communities and the Vineyard Ecosystems

The grape yeast biota from several wine-producing areas, with distinct soil types and grapevine training systems, was assessed on five islands of Azores Archipelago, and differences in yeast communities composition associated with the geographic origin of the grapes were explored. Fifty-seven grape samples belonging to the Vitis vinifera grapevine cultivars Verdelho dos Acores (Verdelho), Arinto da Terceira (Arinto) and Terrantez do Pico (Terrantez) were collected in two consecutive years and 40 spontaneous fermentations were achieved. A total of 1710 yeast isolates were obtained from freshly crushed grapes and 1200 from final stage of fermentations. Twenty-eight species were identified, Hanseniaspura uvarum, Pichia terricola and Metschnikowia pulcherrima being the three most representative species isolated. Candida carpophila was encountered for the first time as an inhabitant of grape or wine-associated environments. In both sampling years, a higher proportion of H. uvarum in fresh grapes from Verdelho cultivar was observed, in comparison with Arinto cultivar. Qualitatively significant differences were found among yeast communities from several locations on five islands of the Archipelago, particularly in locations with distinctive agro-ecological compositions. Our results are in agreement with the statement that grape-associated microbial biogeography is non-randomly associated with interactions of climate, soil, cultivar, and vine training systems in vineyard ecosystems. Our observations strongly support a possible linkage between grape yeast and wine typicality, reinforcing the statement that different viti-cultural terroirs harbor distinctive yeast biota, in particular in vineyards with very distinctive environmental conditions.Joao Drumonde Neves is the recipient of a fellowship of the Azorean Government (M321/006/F/2008) and PROEMPREGO. This work was supported by the strategic programme UID/BIA/04050/2013 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007569) funded by national funds through the FCT I.P. and by the ERDF through the COMPETE2020 - Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalizacao (POCI), and by national funds through FCT by the projects FCOMP-01-0124-008775, PTDC/AGR-ALI/103392/2008 and PTDC/AGR-ALI/121062/2010.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The mae1 gene of Schizosaccharomyces pombe encodes a permease for malate and other C4 dicarboxylic acids

The mae1 gene of the yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe was identified on the basis of its ability to complement a mutant defective in the transport of malic acid. Analysis of the DNA sequence revealed an open reading frame of 1314 base pairs, encoding a polypeptide of 438 amino acids with a predicted molecular weight of 49 kDa. A hydropathy profile of the predicted amino acid sequence revealed a protein with ten membrane-spanning or associated domains and hydrophilic N- and C- termini. The predicted secondary structure of the protein is similar to models proposed for other integral membrane proteins from both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. The S. pombe mae1 gene encodes a single mRNA of 1.5 kb. The mae1 gene is expressed constitutively and is not subject to catabolite repression as was previously reported for the malate permease systems of Candida utilis and Hansenula anomala. The mae1 gene was mapped 2842 bp 5' to the MFm1 gene on chromosome I. Transport assays revealed that the mae1 gene encodes a permease involved in the uptake of L-malate, succinate and malonic acid. The sequence of the S. pombe mae1 gene is available in GenBank under Accession Number U21002.Articl