Yeast Diversity and Flavor Compounds

Abstract

Yeast had participated with humans in food fermentation since the production of wine and bread, more than 10,000 years of shared history. It is well understood that fungi diversity is still underestimated and that we are far from understanding its importance and potential impact in biotechnology. Flavor compounds as “secondary metabolism” are very sensitive to fermentation conditions and F. Carrau (*) • E. Boido Seccion Enologia, Departmento de Ciencia y Tecnologia de Alimentos, Facultad de Quimica, Universidad de la Republica, Montevideo, Uruguay e-mail: fcarrau@fq.edu.uy; eboido@fq.edu.uy E. Dellacassa Catedra de Farmacognosia y Productos Naturales, Departamento de Quimica Organica, Facultad de Quimica, Universidad de la Republica, Montevideo, Uruguay e-mail: edellac@fq.edu.uy # Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 J.-M. Merillon, K.G. Ramawat (eds.), Fungal Metabolites, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-19456-1_32-1 1 mixed cultures, and although we had experience an exponential development of molecular biology in the last 30 years, metabolomics is still in its infancy. It was demonstrated in recent years that increase strain and species yeast diversity in a fermentation system increases sensory complexity and chemical aroma compound diversity in the final fermented product. Flavor compounds had many key functions for yeast, such as for survival and dispersion strategies, pheromone and defense mechanisms, and “quorum sensing” mechanisms for cell communication. Humans had taken advantage of many of these functions to increase taste and food sensory pleasure for a more exigent consumer, a phenomenon called “yeast domestication.”We focus this chapter mainly in the recent discussed yeast synthetic pathways for the formation of phenylpropanoid and terpenoid aroma compounds. In addition, we will emphasize the current knowledge that grape and wine microbiology research has contributed to understand how complex natural and inoculated yeast flora can affect flavor quality. The flavor phenotype concept and how to screen natural flora and develop consortia starters to innovate in food biotechnology are discussed.