Physiological, biochemical and molecular characterisation of hydroxycinnamic acid catabolism by Dekkera and Brettanomyces yeasts.
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Dekkera and the closely related Brettanomyces are important yeasts in food and beverage production in part due to the metabolism of hydroxycinnamic acids (HCAs). There is a dearth of information concerning the role Brettanomyces spp. play in the food or beverage from which they are isolated and although Dekkera spp. have been investigated further there are discrepancies and questions yet to be answered. Representatives of both genera were examined to define growth and metabolism of individual HCAs in synthetic media. In addition, growth with combinations of HCAs was investigated for the first time. The results provide a comprehensive overview of HCA metabolism and volatile product formation for these genera. Furthermore, results have been confirmed in a semidefined wine medium that more closely resembled the physio-chemical parameters found in the typical wine environment. \nThe enzymes responsible for the metabolism of HCAs were examined in Dekkera and Brettanomyces. Dekkera yeasts are known to enzymatically convert HCAs into vinylphenols (VPs) and ethylphenols (EPs). These products are indicative of Dekkera contamination. The first enzyme in the two-step HCA ─ VP ─ EP biochemical pathway is a hydroxycinnamic acid decarboxylase (HCD). This enzyme has been previously characterised from a single Dekkera strain. The second enzyme, vinylphenol reductase (VPR) has never been isolated or characterised from any microorganism. \nIn order to further elucidate the HCA ─ VP ─ EP pathway, cell extracts were prepared from all five Dekkera and Brettanomyces spp. to evaluate activity against HCAs and VPs. Brettanomyces spp. were unable to metabolise HCAs indicating that these yeast do not have a functional HCD enzyme. Both Dekkera spp. have substrate inducible HCD activity. Temperature and pH optima were 40ºC and 5.75-6.00, respectively. The active protein was purified from cell extracts of D. anomala CBS 77 and a partial sequence was obtained. 3’RACE PCR was performed and a near complete gene sequence determined. This sequence does not have homology to HCA decarboxylase enzymes previously characterised from yeasts and bacteria and thus may represent a novel enzyme not previously described. Biochemical characterisation of the vinylphenol reductase (VPR) enzyme was also undertaken. VPR activity was found for all 5 Dekkera and Brettanomyces spp. Activity was greatest at pH 6 and between 40-50ºC and was induced by both VPs and HCAs. \nData obtained during growth experiments indicated that HCAs, and in particular ferulic acid, inhibited the growth of Dekkera and Brettanomyces spp. On this basis a more detailed study was carried out to determine the concentrations required to prevent growth in various media. In a modified red wine a concentration 0.1 mM ferulic acid inhibited growth and 2 mM prevented cultures of both D. anomala and D. bruxellensis from becoming established even when re-inoculated into to a fresh HCA-free medium. Scanning electron micrographs revealed that ferulic acid caused physical damage to Dekkera cells upon exposure. This work could lead to the development of an alternative method for the control of Dekkera in wine or other food products.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".