Evaluation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Wine Yeast Competitive Fitness in Enologically Relevant Environments by Barcode Sequencing

When a wine yeast is inoculated into grape juice the potential variation in juice composition that confronts it is huge. Assessing the performance characteristics of the many commercially available wine yeasts in the many possible grape juice compositions is a daunting task. To this end we have developed a barcoded Saccharomyces cerevisiae wine yeast collection to facilitate the task of performance assessment that will contribute to a broader understanding of genotype-phenotype relations. Barcode sequencing of mixed populations is used to monitor strain abundance in different grape juices and grape juice-like environments. Choice of DNA extraction method is shown to affect strain-specific barcode count in this highly related set of S. cerevisiae strains; however, the analytical approach is shown to be robust toward strain dependent variation in DNA extraction efficiency. Of the 38 unique compositional variables assessed, resistance to copper and SO₂ are found to be dominant discriminatory factors in wine yeast performance. Finally, a comparison of competitive fitness profile with performance in single inoculum fermentations reveal strain dependent correspondence of yeast performance using these two different approaches.