Isolation and characterization of yeast for the production of rice wine with low fusel alcohol content

PLoS One. 2021 Nov 17;16(11):e0260024. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0260024. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Fusel alcohols (FAs) are a type of flavor compound found in rice wine. An overly high FA content not only leads to spicy, bitter, and astringent taste but also has side effects. Therefore, screening for yeast that produce low FA contents has attracted much attention. Thirty-two yeast strains were isolated from fermenting material during Luzhou-flavor liquor production in this study. Strain YB-12 was selected as a suitable candidate for rice wine production. The strain was identified as a member of the genus Meyerozyma based on phylogenetic analysis using 26S rDNA gene sequences. The ability of strain YB-12 to produce ethanol was similar to that of Saccharomyces cerevisiae NRRL Y-567, while isobutanol and isoamyl alcohol production was only 53.96% and 50.23%, respectively, of that of NRRL Y-567. The FA yield of rice wine produced with strain YB-12 was reduced to 51.85% in a 20 L fermenter. These results demonstrate that strain YB-12 presents promising characteristics for use in the production of rice wine with a potentially low content of FAs.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Ethanol
  • Fermentation
  • Phylogeny
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae*
  • Wine

Substances

  • Ethanol

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the National Engineering Technology Research Center of Solid-state Brewing [grant numbers 2018-74, 2020-80], the Solid-state Fermentation Resource Utilization Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province [grant numbers 2016GTY003, 2018GTY001, 2018GTJ014], and the Research Project of Yibin University [grant numbers 2020YY04]. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Luzhou Laojiao Co., Ltd. provided support in the form of salaries for authors [LQ Zh, GQ Liu, CH Sh, ST Wang ], but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section.