CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Patagonia (Argentina and Chile) harbors the highest Saccharomyces eubayanusgenomic diversity and its widest predominance in natural environments. In this work,S. eubayanus was isolated for the first time from a fermentative environment. Thisspecies was found dominating both a traditional apple chicha fermentation as well asferal apple trees in the Andean region of Aluminé (Argentina). S. eubayanus was theonly Saccharomyces species found in the isolation substrates, although it coexistedwith other non‐Saccharomyces species. The absence of strong fermentativecompetitors of the Saccharomyces genus (like Saccharomyces uvarum or Saccharomycescerevisiae) in the feral apples could promote the development and implantation ofS. eubayanus in a spontaneous apple must fermentation. Phylogeographic analysesrevealed a high intraspecific diversity in S. eubayanus, enabling the characterizationof strains belonging to the genomic subpopulations PA1, PA2, and PB1 according tothe sequences obtained for the intFR gene region. This result evidence that thestudied sampling area represents a natural habitat for the species. Being a novelfinding, studying the causes that allowed this species to prosper in a fermentativeenvironment becomes essential. Hence, the physiological profile of the new isolates,including their ability to grow at different temperature, nitrogen, and ethanolconcentrations was evaluated in comparison with a set of S. eubayanus strainspreviously isolated from natural environment and representing different genomicsubpopulations. Greater physiological diversity was evidenced when strains isolatedfrom both natural and fermentative environments were analyzed overall. Furthermore,no direct relationship between genomic population and physiological behaviorwas observed; on the opposite, strains appeared to exhibit similar behavior, primarilygrouped by isolation origin.

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