Differentiation of industrial wine yeast strains using microsatellite markers

Aims: To differentiate nine industrial wine strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae using microsatellite (simple sequence repeats, SSR) markers. Methods and Results: Six of the strains were indigenous yeasts currently used as high-density starter monocultures by the Uruguayan wine industry. Unequivocal differentiation of these six native strains and three commercial S. cerevisiae wine strains was achieved by PCR amplification and polymorphism analysis of loci containing microsatellite markers. Conclusions: We recommend the use of this reproducible and simple molecular method to routinely discriminate wine yeast strains. Significance and Impact of the Study:  Microsatellites are superior to other methods for typing yeasts because the results can be exchanged as quantitative data. Knowledge of the frequencies of the alleles for different SSR markers will eventually lead to an accurate typing method to identify industrial wine yeast strains.