MBAA TQ https://doi.org/10.1094/TQ-58-2-0528-01 | 
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Zachari Turgeon, Ryan C. Jurgens, Thomas Sierocinski, Cedric A. Brimacombe, Yiqiong Jin, Jessica M. Swanson, and John I. Husnik. Renaissance BioScience Corporation, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Abstract
Lager beer is produced by
Saccharomyces pastorianus, which is a natural allopolyploid hybrid between
S. cerevisiae and
S. eubayanus. Lager strains are classified into two major groups based largely on genomic composition: group I and group II. Group I strains are allotriploid, whereas group II are allotetraploid. A lack of phenotypic diversity in commercial lager strains has led to substantial interest in the reconstitution of
de novo allotetraploid lager strains by hybridization of
S. cerevisiae and
S. eubayanus strains. Such strategies rely on the hybridization of wild
S. eubayanus isolates, which carry unacceptable traits for commercial lager beer such as phenolic off-flavors and incomplete utilization of carbohydrates. Using an alternative breeding strategy, we have created
de novo lager hybrids containing the domesticated
S. eubayanus subgenome from an industrial
S. pastorianus strain by hybridizing this strain to a variety of
S. cerevisiae ale strains. Five
de novo hybrids were isolated that had fermentation characteristics similar to those of prototypical commercial lager strains but with unique phenotypic variation due to the contributions of the
S. cerevisiae parents. Genomic analysis of these
de novo lager hybrids identified novel allotetraploid genomes carrying three copies of the
S. cerevisiae genome and one copy of the
S. eubayanus genome. Most importantly, these hybrids do not possess the negative traits that result from breeding wild
S. eubayanus. The
de novo lager strains produced using industrial S. pastorianus in this study are immediately suitable for industrial lager beer production.
Keywords:
Saccharomyces, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Saccharomyces pastorianus, lager, hybrid, genetics
This article is adapted from the following publication under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license: Turgeon, Z., Sierocinski, T., Brimacombe, C. A., Jin, Y., Goldhawke, B., Swanson, J. M., Husnik, J. I., and Dahabieh, M. S. 2021. Industrially applicable
de novo lager yeast hybrids with a unique genomic architecture: creation and characterization. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 87:e02434-20.
https://doi.org/10.1128/ AEM.02434-20.
