Diversity of yeasts in Indian fermented foods and alcoholic beverages

Ethnic Indian people have been domesticating beneficial microorganisms (bacteria, yeasts, and moulds) by their wisdom of ethno-microbiological knowledge for production of flavoured and socio-culturally preferred fermented foods and alcoholic beverages for more than 8000 years. The purpose of this review is to collate the available literatures of diversity of Saccharomyces and non-Saccharomyces species associated with Indian fermented foods and alcoholic beverages. A colossal diversity of enzyme- and alcohol-producing yeasts under the phylum Ascomycota has been reported from Indian fermented foods and alcoholic beverages. The distributions of yeast species show 13.5% of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and 86.5% of some non-Saccharomyces spp. in Indian fermented foods and alcoholic beverages, based on the reported literatures available till date. There is a research gap on prospect of yeasts research in India. Hence, we suggest that validation of traditional knowledge of domestication of functional yeasts needs to be studied to develop the functional genomics platforms for Saccharomyces and non-Saccharomyces spp. in Indian fermented foods and alcoholic beverages.