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Reduced production of ethyl carbamate for wine fermentation by deleting CAR1 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

  • Fermentation, Cell Culture and Bioengineering
  • Published:
Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology

Abstract

Ethyl carbamate (EC), a pluripotent carcinogen, is mainly formed by a spontaneous chemical reaction of ethanol with urea in wine. The arginine, one of the major amino acids in grape musts, is metabolized by arginase (encoded by CAR1) to ornithine and urea. To reduce the production of urea and EC, an arginase-deficient recombinant strain YZ22 (Δcarl/Δcarl) was constructed from a diploid wine yeast, WY1, by successive deletion of two CAR1 alleles to block the pathway of urea production. The RT-qPCR results indicated that the YZ22 almost did not express CAR1 gene and the specific arginase activity of strain YZ22 was 12.64 times lower than that of parent strain WY1. The fermentation results showed that the content of urea and EC in wine decreased by 77.89 and 73.78 %, respectively. Furthermore, EC was forming in a much lower speed with the lower urea during wine storage. Moreover, the two CAR1 allele deletion strain YZ22 was substantially equivalent to parental strain in terms of growth and fermentation characteristics. Our research also suggested that EC in wine originates mainly from urea that is produced by the arginine.

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Acknowledgments

This research was financed by the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863Program) (Grant No. 2013AA102108), and the Key Technologies R & D Program of Tianjin (Grant No. 15ZCZDNC00110).

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Key Laboratory of Industrial Fermentation Microbiology, Ministry of Education, Tianjin Industrial Microbiology Key Laboratory, Tianjin, 300457, People’s Republic of China

      Xue-Wu Guo, Yuan-Zi Li, Jian Guo, Qing Wang, Shi-Yong Huang, Ye-Fu Chen, Li-Ping Du & Dong-Guang Xiao

    2. College of Bioengineering, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, No. 29, 13th Avenue, TEDA-Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area, Tianjin, 300457, People’s Republic of China

      Xue-Wu Guo, Yuan-Zi Li, Jian Guo, Qing Wang, Shi-Yong Huang, Ye-Fu Chen, Li-Ping Du & Dong-Guang Xiao

    3. Tianjin Food Safety and Low Carbon Manufacturing Collaborative Innovation Center, Tianjin, 300457, People’s Republic of China

      Xue-Wu Guo, Ye-Fu Chen, Li-Ping Du & Dong-Guang Xiao

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    1. Xue-Wu Guo
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    Correspondence to Dong-Guang Xiao.

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    X.-W. Guo and Y.-Z. Li contributed equally to the article.

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    Guo, XW., Li, YZ., Guo, J. et al. Reduced production of ethyl carbamate for wine fermentation by deleting CAR1 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae . J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol 43, 671–679 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10295-016-1737-7

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