The aim of this work was to study the biodiversity of yeasts isolated from the autochthonous grape variety called "Uva di Troia", monitoring the natural diversity from the grape berries to wine during a vintage. Grapes were collected in vineyards from two different geographical areas and spontaneous alcoholic fermentations (AFs) were performed. Different restriction profiles of ITS-5.8S rDNA region, corresponding to Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Issatchenkia orientalis, Metschnikowia pulcherrima, Hanseniaspora uvarum, Candida zemplinina, Issatchenkia terricola, Kluyveromyces thermotolerans, Torulaspora delbrueckii, Metschnikowia chrysoperlae, Pichia fermentans, Hanseniaspora opuntiae and Hanseniaspora guilliermondii, were observed. The yeast occurrences varied significantly from both grape berries and grape juices, depending on the sampling location. Furthermore, samples collected at the end of AF revealed the great predominance of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, with a high intraspecific biodiversity. This is the first report on the population dynamics of 'cultivable' microbiota diversity of "Uva di Troia" cultivar from the grape to the corresponding wine ("Nero di Troia"), and more general for Southern Italian oenological productions, allowing us to provide the basis for an improved management of wine yeasts (with both non-Saccharomyces and Saccharomyces) for the production of typical wines with desired unique traits. A certain geographical-dependent variability has been reported, suggesting the need of local based formulation for autochthonous starter cultures, especially in the proportion of the different species/strains in the design of mixed microbial preparations.
Keywords: Autochthonous starter cultures; Biodiversity; Non-Saccharomyces; Saccharomyces cerevisiae; Wine; Yeast.