“We report on the remarkable degree of biodiversity in the wine yeast populations naturally present in a small area of Sicily where traditional (non-industrial) winery practices are still in place. Out of more than 900 yeast isolates recovered from late spontaneous fermentations, we detected at least 209 strains. Given that the characteristics of the wines produced were found to be industrially appealing, the study demonstrated the economic potential of preserving the patrimony of Sicilian yeast biodiversity and highlighted the importance of maintaining traditional wine making practices.”
This is a great paper – studying the biodiversity of yeast obtained from traditional wineries; analyzing their genetic and metabolic qualities; and even using a few to make wines.
How fun. How inspiring.
Read this article in PLoS ONE
UPDATE 15mar12: Science wrote a nice review on this article. Ironic though that a publication with closed access articles is writing about an open access article.
