Biodiversity of Yeasts in Man-made Environments

Tibor Deak

Department of Microbiology and Biotechnology, University of Horticulture and Food Science, Budapest, Hungary

Article history:
Received September 12, 1997
Accepted November 11, 1998

Key words:
Saccharomyces sensu stricto, yeast biodiversity microbial ecology

Summary:
Agroecosystems and foods are based on natural habitats which have become partially or largely artificial by human interventions. Nevertheless, foods can be treated in terms of microbial ecology, and vineyards and wineries provide examples of man-made ecosystems in which the biodiversity of yeasts can be studied. Molecular techniques have made it possible to characterize the intraspecies population of the wine yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae at the genetic level, tofolloio its distribution, variation and dynamics from the grapes through spontaneous and induced fermentation, as well as to study the speciation and domestication of Saccharomyces sensu stricto yeasts.