Abstract
In recent years, interspecific hybridization and introgression are increasingly recognized as significant events in the evolution of Saccharomyces yeasts. These mechanisms have probably been involved in the origin of novel yeast genotypes and phenotypes, which in due course were to colonize and predominate in the new fermentative environments created by human manipulation. The particular conditions in which hybrids arose are still unknown, as well as the number of possible hybridization events that generated the whole set of natural hybrids described in the literature during recent years. In this study, we could infer at least six different hybridization events that originated a set of 26 S. cerevisiae x S. kudriavzevii hybrids isolated from both fermentative and non-fermentative environments. Different wine S. cerevisiae strains and European S. kudriavzevii strains were probably involved in the hybridization events according to gene sequence information, as well as from previous data on their genome composition and ploidy. Finally, we postulate that these hybrids may have originated after the introduction of vine growing and winemaking practices by the Romans to the present Northern vine-growing limits and spread during the expansion of improved viticulture and enology practices that occurred during the Late Middle Ages.
Highlights
The first evidence of production of fermented beverages dates back to 7000 BC in the Neolithic village of Jiahu in China [1], but the earliest evidence of winemaking is traced to Iran at the Hajji Firuz Tepe site (5400-5000 BC) [2]
Twenty-six S. cerevisiae x S. kudriavzevii hybrid strains from different origins (Table S1) and seven strains belonging to S. kudriavzevii species (Table S2) were used in this study
Phylogenetic Analysis of S. cerevisiae Genes from Hybrids Phylogenetic relationships between S. cerevisiae x S. kudriavzevii natural hybrids obtained from several origins and a set of pure strains of the two parental species were analyzed to decipher possible common origins of these hybrids
Summary
The first evidence of production of fermented beverages dates back to 7000 BC in the Neolithic village of Jiahu in China [1], but the earliest evidence of winemaking is traced to Iran at the Hajji Firuz Tepe site (5400-5000 BC) [2]. From these origins in the slopes of northern Zagros, eastern Taurus and Caucasus Mountains, vineyards and grape wine production gradually spread to adjacent regions of the Fertile Crescent such as Mesopotamia and the Jordan Valley, and beyond, to the Eastern Mediterranean regions of Egypt, Phoenicia, Crete and Greece (5000 BC). The important expansion of winemaking was during the European colonization of America (16th century), South Africa (17th century), and Australia and New Zealand (18–19th centuries) [3,4]
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