Fermentation properties of a wine yeast over-expressing the Saccharomyces cerevisiae glycerol 3-phosphate dehydrogenase gene (GPD2)

Wine yeasts efficiently convert sugar into ethanol. The possibility of diverting some of the sugar into compounds other than ethanol by using molecular genetic methods was tested. Over-expression of the yeast glycerol 3-phosphate dehydrogenase gene (GPD2) in a laboratory strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae led to an approximate two-fold increase in the extracellular glycerol concentration. In the medium fermented with the modified strain, acetic acid concentration also increased approximately two-fold when respiration was blocked. A strain deleted for the GPD2 gene had the opposite phenotype, producing lower amounts of glycerol and acetic acid, with the latter compound only reduced during non-respiratory growth. A commercial wine yeast over-expressing GPD2 produced 16.5 g/L glycerol in a wine fermentation, compared to 7.9 g/L obtained with the parent strain. As seen for the laboratory strain, acetic acid concentrations were also increased when using the genetically modified wine yeast. A panel of wine judges confirmed the increase in volatile acidity of these wines. The altered glycerol biosynthetic pathway sequestered carbon from glycolysis and reduced the production of ethanol by 6 g/L.