Abstract:

Saccharomyces cerevisiae FM-cs-08, a strain with the ability to degrade L-malic acid, was treated with UV or 60Co γ ray irradiation with the aim to obtain a mutant strain having improved acid-degrading ability and fermentation performance. The mutant strain was named FM-cs-08-2U, by which the degradation efficiency of L-malic acid was (29.48±0.21)%, showing a (25.44±0.89)% increase compared with the starting strain. The tolerance and fermentation performance of the mutant strain were assessed and the results showed that its lowest tolerable pH was 2.5 and its highest tolerable SO2 concentration was 800 mg/L. The residual sugar content of blueberry wine fermented with FM-cs-08-2U was (3.70 ± 0.10) g/L, pH 3.18±0.01, organic acid content (8.64±0.02) g/L, and alcohol content (12.00±1.00)%. These results indicate that the selected mutant strain is suitable for brewing blueberry wine.

Key words: acid-degrading yeast, mutation breeding, fermentation performance