Polymorphism exploration of Schizosaccharomyces japonicus strains based on single nucleotide polymorphism and...

Strain polymorphism of non-Saccharomyces has not yet been fully explored due to the limitation of genome information compared to Saccharomyces yeast. This study targeted Schizosaccharomyces japonicus (S. japonicus) for polymorphism exploration. On one hand, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) primers with short-amplicon target were newly designed based on genome-wide SNP variations, and could discriminate strains from different isolation sources. Primer S. japonicus-3 could classify 195 strains into 13 haplotypes, and the haplotypes TA and TCA checked by primer S. japonicus-3 only presented in S. japonicus isolates from spontaneous fermentation of the Ziqiu variety of grape. On the other hand, high polysaccharide production and high flocculence in S. japonicus correlated with specific haplotypes: GC and TTA were exclusively detected in polysaccharide high producing strains, while TC and CA were uniquely associated with high flocculence phenotypes. This study provides a new method for the strain differentiation of S. japonicus, and would be helpful for the application of S. japonicus in wine industry.