Summary
The so-called wine yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae, S. chevalieri, S. bayanus, S. italicus and S. uvarum are characterized by high ethanol tolerance and fermentation velocity. They are ecologically related, being predominantly associated with grape must and wine, and are taxonomically indistinguishable. The only significant physiological differences are between the ability to ferment certain sugars. A taxonomic revision of more than 1,000 strains isolated during the past 50 years and belonging to the above species showed extreme instability in the ability to ferment different sugars. The relationships between these yeasts were examined for DNA base composition and DNA-DNA reassociation. The G+C ranged from 37.6% to 39.0% while optical reassociation experiments defined a first group of species (Saccharomyces cerevisiae, S. chevalieri and S. italicus) exhibiting high base sequence complementarity (>90%). S. bayanus and S. uvarum also showed a high degree of relatedness. Low homology values (∼30%) indicate that the two groups of species are not closely related. While it is proposed to combine S. cerevisiae, S. chevalieri and S. italicus into one single species under the oldest epithet Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a study of a larger number of strains is recommended before considering the taxonomic position of S. bayanus and S. uvarum.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bicknell NJ, Douglas HC (1970) Nucleic acid homologies among species of Saccharomyces. J Bacteriol 101:505–512
Capriotti A (1954) Recherches sur les levures de la fermentation vinaire en Italie. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek I Microbiol Serol 20:374–384
Castelli T (1957) Climate and agents of wine fermentation. Am J Enol 8:149–156
Diddens HA, Lodder J (1942) Die Anaskosporogenen Hefen. Zweite Hälfte. Nord Hollandsch, Amsterdam
Federici F, Rosini G, Martini A (1979) Revisione tassonomica e tecnologica della collezione IMAT-PG: Saccharomyces rosei. Vini d'Italia 21:207–214
Guilliermond A (1912) Les Levures. Doin, Paris
Kurtzman CP, Johnson CJ, Smiley MJ (1979) Determination of conspecificity of Candida utilis and Hansenula jadinii through DNA reassociation. Nycologia 71:844–847
Lodder J (1934) Die anaskosporogenen Hefen, Erste Hälfte. Verh K Acad Wet Afd Naturk Tweede Reeks II. 32:1
Lodder J, Kreger van Rij NJW (1952) The Yeasts-a taxonomic Study. North-Holland, Amsterdam
Marmur J, Doty P (1962) Determination of the base composition of deoxyribonucleic acid from its thermal denaturation temperature. J Mol Biol 5:109–118
Meyer SA, Phaff HJ (1969) Deoxyribonucleic acid base composition in yeasts. J Bacteriol 97:52–56
Nakase T, Yarrow D (1975) DNA base composition of species of the genus Saccharomyces. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek J Microbiol Serol 41:81–88
Price CW, Fuson GB, Phaff HJ (1978) Genome comparison in yeast systematics: delimitation of species within the genera Schwannyomyces, Saccharomyces, Debaryomyces and Pichia. Microbiol Rev 42:161–193
Rosini G, Federici F, Martini A (1979) Revisione tecnologica e tassonomica della collezione IMAT-PG: Saccharomyces chevalieri, S. italicus, S. uvarum. Vini d'Italia 21:361–368
Scheda R, Yarrow D (1966) The instability of physiological properties used as criteria in the taxonomy of yeasts. Arch Microbiol 55:209–225
Scheda R, Yarrow D (1968) Variations in the fermentative pattern of some Saccharomyces species. Arch Microbiol 61:310–316
Seidler RJ, Mandel M (1971) Quantitative aspects of deoxyribonucleic acid renaturation: base composition, state of chromosome replication, and polynucleotide homologies. J Bacteriol 106:608–614
Seidler RJ, Knittel MD, Brown C (1975) Potential pathogens in the environment. Cultural reactions and nucleic acid studies on Klebsiella pneumoniae from chemical and environmental sources. Appl Microbiol 29:819–815
Stahl U, Esser K (1979) Subsequent transfer of yeasts may lead via single gene mutations to alterations of the species. Biotechnol Lett 1:383–385
Stelling-Dekker NM (1931) Die sporogenen Hefen. Verh K Acad Wet Afd Natuurk Tweede Reeks II. 28:1
Tsuchiya TY, Fukazawa Y, Taguchi M, Nakase T, Shimoda T (1974) Serological aspects on yeast classification. Mycopathol Mycol Appl 53:77–91
van der Walt J-P (1970) Criteria and methods used in classification. In: Lodder J (ed) The Yeasts-a taxonomic Study. North-Holland, Amsterdam, pp 34–113
Wickernam LJ (9151) Taxonomy of yeasts. Technical Bulletin 1029, US Department of Agriculture, Washington DC
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rosini, G., Federici, F., Vaughan, A.E. et al. Systematics of the species of the yeast genus Saccharomyces associated with the fermentation industry. European J. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 15, 188–193 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00511247
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00511247