Mitogression · Generating yeast biodiversity by mitochondrial introgression for wine innovation
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2017-09-01 → 2019-08-31
- EU contribution
- €170,122
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-RI
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Results in brief
Generating yeast biodiversity by mitochondrial introgression for wine innovation
MITOGRESSION project was developed to understand the phenotypic and genotypic effects of mitochondrial genome inheritance in yeast cybrids and hybrids. Yeasts are responsible of bioconversion of the grape must sugars to ethanol, flavors and other compounds during wine fermentation. The wine industry is facing several challenges that push companies to innovate by searching new wine products, most of them with reduced ethanol content, due to country driving laws and the societal movement to healthy lifestyles, and new organoleptic properties. MITOGRESSION aims seek to generate new yeast strains able to perform wine fermentations following the new necessities of the wine industry, but also to answer some basic research questions related with genome evolution and speciation. MITOGRESSION demonstrated the implication of mitochondrial genome inheritance in adaptation to different temperatures, industrial stress tolerance, and production of compounds, which are precursors of aromatic compounds. Additionally, we demonstrated the implication of mitochondrial genome inheritance in the retention of nuclear genome, where industrial interesting traits are encoded. All these results will allow us to build new breeding pipelines for the generation of new yeasts targeting the necessities of industrial company challenges. During MITOGRESSION, we also developed a new methodology to generate new cells combining the genomes of six different species in one. The new methodology will allow studying polyploidy, genome stability, chromosome segregation, cancer and bioenergy. In conclusion, the MITOGRESSION project have generate new insights about the importance of controlling the mitochondrial genome inheritance in new interspecies hybrids to target the demands of the industry.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Wine global demand is decreasing due to a shift in consumer preferences and cultural changes. The EU is a GLOBAL LEADER in WINE production, whose wine companies wants to decrease ethanol content, while improving organoleptic properties to deal with these new demands. YEASTS, mainly Saccharomyces cerevisiae, play a KEY ROLE during wine fermentation, when alcohol and the main flavors are produced. Application of new yeasts, produced by genetic engineering, is limited due to the non-acceptance of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). We PROPOSE to apply non-GMO methodologies, to obtain IMPROVED YEASTS by the generation of yeast strains (cybrids), with mitochondrial genomes (mitogression) from non-cerevisiae species, or hybrids, increasing yeast DIVERSITY, to select strains whose fermentation products match wine company expectations. We will ANSWER some BASIC research QUESTIONS: how is genotype molded by the presence of a foreign mitochondrial genome? Are these changes common between independent experiments and wild isolates? And, are evolved strains starting to show evidence of speciation from their ancestors? The results of this project will IMPACT the WINE INDUSTRY by generating new potential commercial strains, and future collaborations. The knowledge gained through this proposal will demonstrate to the scientific community the use of novel methodologies as well as expose the general public to the importance of biodiversity for industrial processes and how the transfer of genetic material and experimental evolution can produce beneficial traits for our societies. The researcher (evolutionary biology and bioinformatics background), supervisor (microbiology, systems biology, and synthetic biology background), and host institution (facilities, knowledge, experience, and supporting elements) will form a perfect entity for the development of MITOGRESSION proposal, and to CONSOLIDATE the scientific career of the researcher for his future INDEPENDENT position.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS · MadridCoordinatorSpain
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union