Molecular Techniques for the Detection and Identification of Yeasts in Wine

This chapter discusses cultural and molecular methods used for the identification and detection of yeasts in the wine industry. Traditional methods are important in controlling of wine quality, from raw materials to finished product. Cultural methods are also used for testing of starter cultures and commercial dried yeast preparations. A number of molecular methods have replaced traditional cultural methods. Molecular techniques are used to identify and characterize wine yeasts based on analysis of their DNA. These methods are rapid, reproducible, and sensitive, and are used for a variety of purposes, such as analyzing variation in naturally occurring and inoculated yeast populations, monitoring the dynamics of inoculated strains and characterizing wine yeasts. Two types of molecular methods (direct and indirect) are used: indirect methods for identification of cultured organisms and direct methods to identify specific microbes in a mixed population.