Saccharomyces uvarum is Responsible for the Traditional Fermentation of Apple CHICHA in Patagonia

Abstract

Apple chicha is a fresh low alcoholic beverage elaborated by aboriginal communities of Andean Patagonia (Argentina and Chile). In the present work, we identified the yeast microbiota associated with this fermentation, and characterized genetically those belonging to the genus Saccharomyces. Both Saccharomyces cerevisiae and S. uvarum were found in the analyzed fermentations. Phylogenetic and population structure analyses based on genes sequence analysis were carried out for both S. cerevisiae and S. uvarum strains obtained in this study and a set of additional strains from diverse origins. The results demonstrate that S. cerevisiae strains from apple chicha belong to the big group of wine/European strains of this species, while S. uvarum strains were included in the Holartic population of this species. Additionally, some S. uvarum strains from chichas evidenced as an admixture of both pure Holartic and pure South American populations. Our results suggest that Holartic strains could have been introduced in South America together with the domestication of apple trees by Mapuche communities. This Holartic population suffered admixis with the naturally present South American population of this species, originating strains bearing genetic features from the two populations, detectable in both chichas and natural habitats.

Fermentative behaviour and competition capacity of cryotolerant Saccharomyces species in different nitrogen conditions

“…It is interesting to note that for the specific case of S. uvarum species, including strains from natural habitats and fermentative environments, previous phylogenetic analyses have evidenced the existence of at least two different populations with low genetic flux among the strains of this species, isolated from natural habitats in Patagonia and named Southamerica-A and Southamerica-B/Holartic (Almeida et al, 2014). On the other hand, all strains isolated from fermented beverages in the same region belonged to the Southamerica-A/Holartic subpopulation (Almeida et al, 2014;Rodríguez et al, 2017). This data also supports the fact that the origin, more than the phylogenetics relationships, are involved in the physiological response of the yeast to the analysed culture conditions.…”

“…Thirty-two strains belonging to S. uvarum, S. eubayanus and S. kudriavzevii species, isolated from natural (Lopes et al, 2010;Rodríguez et al, 2014) and fermentative (Rodríguez et al, 2017) environments were used in this work. S. uvarum BMV58 and CECT12600 and S. cerevisiae T73 were also used for comparative purpose.…”

Saccharomyces cerevisiae × Saccharomyces uvarum hybrids generated under different conditions share similar winemaking features

“…S. uvarum has been isolated from both natural habitats (Almeida et al, ; Libkind et al, ; Masneuf‐Pomarede et al, ; Naumov et al, ; Rodríguez et al, ; Sampaio and Goncalves, ) and alcoholic beverages fermented at low temperature (Coton et al, ; Demuyter et al, ; Masneuf‐Pomarede et al, ; Masneuf‐Pomarede et al, ; Rodríguez et al, ; Sipiczki, ; Suárez Valles et al, ). The existence of at least three different clades has been recently proposed for S. uvarum : clade ‘C’ from Autralasia; clade ‘B’ corresponding to South American natural strains (South American population B or SA‐B); and clade ‘A’ including both South American natural strains (South American population A or SA‐A) and all S. uvarum Holartic strains (Almeida et al, ).…”

“…The existence of at least three different clades has been recently proposed for S. uvarum : clade ‘C’ from Autralasia; clade ‘B’ corresponding to South American natural strains (South American population B or SA‐B); and clade ‘A’ including both South American natural strains (South American population A or SA‐A) and all S. uvarum Holartic strains (Almeida et al, ). The recent discovery of S. uvarum strains in fermented beverages (apple chichas ) in Patagonia (Rodríguez et al, ) introduced a new factor not discussed by Almeida et al . ().…”

An indigenousSaccharomyces uvarumpopulation with high genetic diversity dominates uninoculated Chardonnay fermentations at a Canadian winery

“…S. uvarum is a cryotolerant yeast usually found in association with white wine fermentations in cool-climate wine regions [9,10,12,24], but has also been associated with cider production [19,20] and some traditional fermentations [25,26]. During fermentation, S. uvarum produces lower levels of ethanol, acetic acid, and acetaldehyde, and higher levels of glycerol, succinic acid, malic acid, isoamyl alcohol, isobutanol, and ethyl acetate, as compared to S. cerevisiae [27–30].…”