Investigating of yeast species in wine fermentation using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism method

The objective of this study was to examine the potential of terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) in monitoring yeast communities during wine fermentation and to reveal new information on yeast community of Chinese enology. Firstly, terminal restriction fragment (TRF) lengths database was constructed using 32 pure yeast species. Ten of these species were firstly documented. The species except for Candida vini, Issatchenkia orientalis/Candida krusei, Saccharomyces bayanus, Saccharomyces pastorianus, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Saccharomyces kudriarzevii and Zygosaccharomyces bisporus could be distinguished by the T-RFLP targeting 5.8S-ITS rDNA. Moreover, the yeast communities in spontaneous fermentation of Chardonnay and Riesling were identified by T-RFLP and traditional methods, including colony morphology on Wallerstein Nutrient (WLN) medium and 5.8S-ITS-RFLP analysis. The result showed that T-RFLP profiles of the yeast community correlated well with that of the results identified by the traditional methods. The TRFs with the highest intensity and present in all the samples corresponded to Saccharomyces sp. Other species detected by both approaches were Hanseniaspora uvarum, Metschnikowia pulcherrima, Pichia minuta var. minuta, Saccharomycodes ludwigii/Torulaspora delbrueckii and Candida zemplinina. This study revealed that T-RFLP technique is a rapid and useful tool for monitoring the composition of yeast species during wine fermentation.