Genetic manipulation of HSP26 and YHR087W stress genes may improve fermentative behaviour in wine yeasts under vinification conditions

Throughout wine production yeast cells are affected by a plethora of stress conditions that compromise their ability to carry out the whole process. In recent years important knowledge about the mechanisms involved in stress response in both laboratory and wine yeast strains has been obtained. Several studies have indicated that a correlation exists between stress resistance, expression of stress response genes and fermentative behaviour. In this work we introduce several genetic manipulations in two genes induced by several stress conditions: HSP26 (which encodes a heat shock protein) and YHR087W (encoding a protein of unknown function) in two different wine yeasts, ICV16 and ICV27. These manipulations include expression in multicopy and centromeric plasmids, and substitution of the promoter in one of the genomic copies of these genes for that of the SPI1 gene, encoding for a cell wall protein of unknown function, or the PGK1 gene, which encodes the phosphoglycerate kinase glycolytic enzyme. Our results indicate that some of these modifications result in strains with higher expression of these genes, better resistance to certain stress conditions, and even improved fermentative behaviour. The modifications of the YHR087W gene are particularly interesting, and suggest an important role of this gene in the vinification process.