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Review
. 2020 Jul 13;8(7):1038.
doi: 10.3390/microorganisms8071038.

The Genus Metschnikowia in Enology

Javier Vicente  1 , Javier Ruiz  1 , Ignacio Belda  1 , Iván Benito-Vázquez  1 , Domingo Marquina  1 , Fernando Calderón  2 , Antonio Santos  1 , Santiago Benito  2
Affiliations
Review

The Genus Metschnikowia in Enology

Javier Vicente et al. Microorganisms. .

Abstract

Over the last decade, several non-Saccharomyces species have been used as an alternative yeast for producing wines with sensorial properties that are distinctive in comparison to those produced using only Saccharomyces cerevisiae as the classical inoculum. Among the non-Saccharomyces wine yeasts, Metschnikowia is one of the most investigated genera due to its widespread occurrence and its impact in winemaking, and it has been found in grapevine phyllospheres, fruit flies, grapes, and wine fermentations as being part of the resident microbiota of wineries and wine-making equipment. The versatility that allows some Metschnikowia species to be used for winemaking relies on an ability to grow in combination with other yeast species, such as S. cerevisiae, during the first stages of wine fermentation, thereby modulating the synthesis of secondary metabolites during fermentation in order to improve the sensory profile of the wine. Metschnikowia exerts a moderate fermentation power, some interesting enzymatic activities involving aromatic and color precursors, and potential antimicrobial activity against spoilage yeasts and fungi, resulting in this yeast being considered an interesting tool for use in the improvement of wine quality. The abovementioned properties have mostly been determined from studies on Metschnikowia pulcherrima wine strains. However, M. fructicola and M. viticola have also recently been studied for winemaking purposes.

Keywords: M. fructicola; M. pulcherrima; M. viticola; Metschnikowia; non-Saccharomyces; wine flavor.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ignacio Belda was an employee of Biome Makers (proprietor of WineSeq technology) when generating data contained in Figure 1B. The rest of the authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(A) Scheme of the phylogenetic relationship between Metschnikowia sp. (including isolates of M. pulcherrima and M. fructicola species), M. viticola, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Torulaspora delbrueckii, and Lachancea thermotolerans, using 26S rRNA sequences. (B) Occurrence rates and relative abundance values at different winemaking stages for the above-mentioned yeast genera (personal communication from A. Acedo; values estimated from a large-scale NGS amplicon-based survey).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Graphical representation of the number of publications by year (1990 to 2020) related to a yeast genus and wine search in PubMed. (A) Results looking for Saccharomyces, Metschnikowia, Torulaspora, and Lachancea (or Kluyveromyces). (B) Detail of the results looking for Metschnikowia, Torulaspora, and Lachancea (or Kluyveromyces).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Summary of proposed Metschnikowia pulcherrima selection parameters.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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