Elucidation of signal transduction pathways for pellicle formation in wild yeast and its application to develop a novel method for preventing deleterious pellicle formation in wineries

Research Project

Project/Area Number	24780069
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Applied microbiology
Research Institution	University of Yamanashi
Principal Investigator	NAKAGAWA Youji 山梨大学, 総合研究部, 助教 (30362081)
Project Period (FY)	2012-04-01 – 2016-03-31
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2015)
Budget Amount *help	¥4,420,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,020,000) Fiscal Year 2014: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000) Fiscal Year 2013: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000) Fiscal Year 2012: ¥1,560,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥360,000)
Keywords	野生酵母 / 産膜 / ワイン / FLO11 / FLO8 / 遺伝子破壊 / Flo8p / グルコース / プロモーター置換 / グルコースシグナル伝達経路
Outline of Final Research Achievements	In this study, we revealed that the glucose signal transduction pathway acting on FLO11 gene, which encodes a cell surface glycoprotein, is one of the signal transduction pathways for pellicle formation by a wild pellicle-forming strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae isolated from contaminated wine in Yamanashi prefecture, Japan. We also found that the wild pellicle-forming strain had the deletion of the 111-bp repression sequence in the FLO11 promoter. Furthermore, we found that FLO8 gene encoding a transcriptional activator in the glucose signal transduction pathway is required for pellicle formation by the wild pellicle-forming strain. Based on the results obtained in this study, yeast or lactic acid bacteria strains which secrete inhibitors of Flo8p would be useful to develop a novel method for preventing deleterious pellicle formation in wineries.