Transcription profiling of sparkling wine second fermentation

Abstract

There is a specific set of stress factors that yeast cells must overcome under second fermentation conditions, during the production of sparkling wines by the traditional (Champenoise) method. Some of them are the same as those of the primary fermentation of still wines, although perhaps with a different intensity (high ethanol concentration, low pH, nitrogen starvation) while others are more specific to second fermentation (low temperature, CO 2 overpressure). The transcription profile of Saccharomyces cerevisiae during primary wine fermentation has been studied by several research groups, but this is the first report on yeast transcriptome under second fermentation conditions. Our results indicate that the main pathways affected by these particular conditions are related to aerobic respiration, but genes related to vacuolar and peroxisomal functions were also highlighted in this study. A parallelism between the transcription profile of wine yeast during primary and second fermentation is appreciated, with ethanol appearing as the main factor driving gene transcription during second fermentation. Low temperature seems to also influence yeast transcription profile under these particular winemaking conditions. © 2011 Elsevier B.V..