Journal of Fermentation and Bioengineering, Vol.83, No.3, 253-260, 1997
Enological Fermentation Kinetics of an Isogenic Ploidy Series Derived from an Industrial Saccharomyces-Cerevisiae Strain
We used a heat-induced endomitotic polyploidization procedure to construct an isogenic ploidy series (2N to 4N) from an industrial strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The nature of the yeast ploidy series observed in this work indicates that the physical and metabolic differences observed among the strains in the yeast ploidy series must be due to differences in gene dosage alone and not to heterosis. We then investigated the fermentation kinetics of the yeast ploidy series on simulated standard grape juice under enological conditions. Cell specific CO2 production rates appeared to be as high as cell ploidy increases. Cell specific CO2 production rates relative to the cytoplasmic volume appeared to be surprisingly different among strains within the ploidy series. We further related this phenomenon to the fact that cell specific CO2 production rates relative to cell plasma membrane surface areas were equal for all the strains tested. The results obtained indicate that, although the normal balance of gene copy numbers was maintained for all enzyme-driven metabolic processes of strains within the ploidy series, a metabolic bottleneck seemed to occur at the plasma membrane level.