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Review
. 2019 Apr;103(7):2937-2945.
doi: 10.1007/s00253-019-09689-z. Epub 2019 Feb 20.

Distribution of Oenococcus oeni populations in natural habitats

Marc P G Lorentzen  1 , Patrick M Lucas  2
Affiliations
Review

Distribution of Oenococcus oeni populations in natural habitats

Marc P G Lorentzen et al. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2019 Apr.

Abstract

Oenococcus oeni is the lactic acid bacteria species most commonly encountered in wine, where it develops after the alcoholic fermentation and achieves the malolactic fermentation that is needed to improve the quality of most wines. O. oeni is abundant in the oenological environment as well as in apple cider and kombucha, whereas it is a minor species in the natural environment. Numerous studies have shown that there is a great diversity of strains in each wine region and in each product or type of wine. Recently, genomic studies have shed new light on the species diversity, population structure, and environmental distribution. They revealed that O. oeni has unique genomic features that have contributed to its fast evolution and adaptation to the enological environment. They have also unveiled the phylogenetic diversity and genomic properties of strains that develop in different regions or different products. This review explores the distribution of O. oeni and the diversity of strains in natural habitats.

Keywords: Domestication; Evolution; Genomics; Malolactic fermentation; Oenococcus oeni; Wine.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical statement

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Distribution of O. oeni. The figure shows the phylogenomic, geographical, and product type distribution of O. oeni, O. kitaharae, and O. alcoholitolerans. The phylogram is based on genomic distances calculated by average nucleotide identity and plotted with neighbor-joining using 252 whole genome sequences of O. oeni strains, 4 O. kitaharae, 1 O. alcoholitolerans, and 4 L. mesenteroides used as outgroup. Phylogenetic groups A, B, C, and D are those defined in Lorentzen et al. (in review)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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