Interactions Between Yeasts and Grapevines: Filamentous Growth, Endopolygalacturonase and Phytopathogenicity of Colonizing Yeasts

Abstract

It has been clearly established that phytopathogenic fungi, bacteria, and viruses exert biotic stresses on plants. Much less is known, however, about the interactions between enological species of yeast and their host plants. In a previous study, we described how Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the most common enological yeast, can act as a grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) pathogen, causing growth retardation or plant death. In the present in vitro study on 11 strains of yeast belonging to different genera, which often occur on the surfaces of vineyard grapes and V. vinifera, a link was found to exist between strain phytopathogenecity and pseudohyphal growth habits and/or endopolygalacturonase activity. The results obtained here are consistent with earlier findings showing that the phytopathogenicity of yeast strains depends on the filamentous growth process, and show that endopolygalacturonase alone is not responsible for the invasion of plants tissues. The mechanisms observed here may be of significant ecological importance and may help to explain the long periods of yeast survival found to occur in vineyards.

Biotechnological implications of filamentation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

“…Scale bar: 10 lm. In 3, haploid industrial strain CCA022 growing on YEPD medium without (a) and with (b) 0.5% isoamyl alcohol, scale bar: 6 lm; haploid industrial strain CCA037 growing in liquid YEPD medium without (c) and with (d) 0.5% isoamyl alcohol, scale bar: 5 lm (Reprinted from Lorenz et al 2000 (1a, b); Silva et al 2007 (1c, d, 2a-d, 3a, b); Vancetto et al 2007 (3c, d), with permission) after an in vitro study on 11 strains of yeast from different genera, including S. cerevisiae, often occurring on the surfaces of vineyard grapes and V. vinifera (Gognies et al 2006).…”

“…For Vitis vinifera, the pseudohyphal growth was necessary for yeasts to colonize plant tissues (Gognies et al 2006). The finding that indole acetic acid, a plant hormone, triggers pseudohyphal growth in S. cerevisiae (Prusty et al 2004) suggests a plant-yeast interaction, mediated by plant-derived signals, in which filamentation may play an important role.…”

“…The invasive growth may be a common response to carbon limitation in diploid industrial yeast strains of S. cerevisiae, which could be related to the growth pattern of this yeast in nature, and so aiding in the penetration of natural substrates such as grapes (Gognies et al 2006) and sugar cane, for example. It is also believed that the ability of invasiveness is an adaptive characteristics of these yeasts to colonize sugar cane stalks, which is their origin (Silva et al 2007).…”

Isolation and Selection of Epiphytic Yeat for Biocontrol of Botrytis cinerea Pers. on Table Grapes

“…There are various yeast species described as pathogenic for table grapes being Pichia, Brettanomyces, Cryptococcus, and Rhodotorula the most studied (Gognies et al, 2006). Even Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the most researched fermentative yeast, can also act as a pathogen on plants causing delay in their growth or death (Gognies et al, 2001).…”

Use of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae endopolygalacturonase promoter to direct expression in Escherichia coli

“…Otherwise, analysis of expression has shown that the PGL1p activity by degradation of pectin could play another function. Thus, it was reported that the PGL1 gene was a target of the MAPK regulatory pathway and was also required in pseudohyphae development [30] and therefore involved in plant pathogenesis [14,15,18].…”