Production of flavour compounds by wine yeasts is dependent on the management of their intracellular redox balance

Abstract

Wine yeasts produce ethanol and a myriad of other metabolites during fermentation that give the final wine its unique organoleptic fingerprint. The complex network of metabolic pathways leading to the production of these flavour compounds is largely dependent on redox enzymatic reactions that make use of the NAD(H) and NADP(H) cofactors. In this work, we investigated the redox cofactor balance and management of two genetically related yeast strains throughout alcoholic fermentation and monitored their production of key metabolites.