12 research outputs found
An important step forward for the future development of an easy and fast procedure for identifying the most dangerous wine spoilage yeast, Dekkera bruxellensis, in wine environment
Dekkera bruxellensis is the main reason for spoilage in the wine industry. It renders the products unacceptable leading to large economic losses. Fluorescence In Situ Hybridisation (FISH) technique has the potential for allowing its specific detection. Nevertheless, some experimental difficulties can be encountered when FISH technique is applied in the wine environment (e.g. matrix and cells autofluorescence, fluorophore inadequate selection and probes low specificity to the target organisms). An easy and fast in-suspension RNA-FISH procedure was applied for the first time for identifying D. bruxellensis in wine. A previously designed RNA-FISH probe to detect D. bruxellensis (26S D. brux.5.1) was used and the matrix and cells fluorescence interferences, the influence of three fluorophores in FISH performance and the probe specificity were evaluated. The results revealed that to apply RNA-FISH technique in the wine environment a red-emitting fluorophore should be used. Good probe performance and specificity was achieved with 25% of formamide. The resulting RNA-FISH protocol was applied in wine samples artificially inoculated with D. bruxellensis. This spoilage microorganism was detected in wine at cell densities lower than those associated with phenolic off-flavours.
Thus, the RNA-FISH procedure described in this work represents an advancement to facilitate early detection of the most dangerous wine spoilage yeast and, consequently, to reduce the economic losses caused by this yeast to the wine industry.This work was co-financed by Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund ALENTEJO 2020 through the projects PTDC/BBB-IMG/0046/2014 and ALT20-03-0145-FEDER-000015, respectively. Marina González-Pérez acknowledges FCT for the economic support through the post-doctoral grant SFRH/BPD/100754/2014
Quantifying the complexities of Saccharomyces cerevisiae's ecosystem engineering via fermentation
The theory of niche construction suggests that organisms may engineer environments via their activities. Despite the potential of this phenomenon being realized by Darwin, the capability of niche construction to generally unite ecological and evolutionary biology has never been empirically quantified. Here I quantify the fitness effects of Saccharomyces cerevisiae's ecosystem engineering in a natural ferment in order to understand the interaction between ecological and evolutionary processes. 1 show that S. cerevisiae eventually dominates in fruit niches, where it is naturally initially rare, by modifying the environment through fermentation (the Crabtree effect) in ways which extend beyond just considering ethanol production. These data show that an additional cause of S. cerevisiae's competitive advantage over the other yeasts in the community is due to the production of heat via fermentation. Even though fermentation is less energetically efficient than respiration, it seems that this trait has been selected for because its net effect provides roughly a 7% fitness advantage over the other members of the community. These data provide an elegant example of niche construction because this trait clearly modifies the environment and therefore the selection pressures to which S. cerevisiae, and other organisms that access the fruit resource, including humans, are exposed to. © 2008 by the Ecological Society of America
Ascomycetous yeast species recovered from grapes damaged by honeydew and sour rot
Aims: To identify ascomycetous yeasts recovered from sound and damaged
grapes by the presence of honeydew or sour rot.
Methods and Results: In sound grapes, the mean yeast counts ranged from
3.20 ± 1.04 log CFU g-1 to 5.87 ± 0.64 log CFU g-1. In honeydew grapes, the
mean counts ranged from 3.88 ± 0.80 log CFU g-1 to 6.64 ± 0.77 log CFU g-1.
In sour rot grapes counts varied between 6.34 ± 1.03 and 7.68 ± 0.38 log
CFU g-1. Hanseniaspora uvarum was the most frequent species from sound
samples. In both types of damage, the most frequent species were Candida vanderwaltii,
H. uvarum and Zygoascus hellenicus. The latter species was recovered
in high frequency because of the utilization of the selective medium DBDM
(Dekkera ⁄ Brettanomyces differential medium). The scarce isolation frequency of
the wine spoilage species Zygosaccharomyces bailii (in sour rotten grapes) and
Zygosaccharomyces bisporus (in honeydew affected grapes) could only be
demonstrated by the use of the selective medium ZDM (Zygosaccharomyces
differential medium).
Conclusions: The isolation of several species only from damaged grapes indicates
that damage constituted the main factor determining yeast diversity. The
utilization of selective media is required for eliciting the recovery of potentially
wine spoilage species.
Significance and Impact of the Study: The impact of damaged grapes in the yeast ecology of grapes has been underestimate
Application of fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) to the analysis of yeast population dynamics in winery and laboratory grape must fermentations
An important step forward for the future development of an easy and fast procedure for identifying the most dangerous wine spoilage yeast, Dekkera bruxellensis,
Morphological and molecular identification of filamentous fungi isolated from cosmetic powders
Seven fungi were isolated from 50 samples of cosmetic powders. Morphological analyses and ribosomal DNA Internal Transcribed Spacers sequencing were performed which allowed the discrimination of the isolated fungi as Aspergillus fumigatus, Penicillium sp., and Cladosporium sp. which could have, among their species, potentially pathogenic microorganisms