Identification of genomic differences between laboratory and commercial strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Abstract

The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is used in many industrial applications including beer brewing, bread making, and winemaking. Winemaking yeast strains have the ability to convert grape sugars into alcohol and other metabolites consistent with good wine. An exploratory comparative approach was undertaken to identify the genes and corresponding proteins that give wine yeast strains of S. cerevisiae their distinctive phenotype, with a focus on studying genes that provide tolerance to ethanol.