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NC State to partner with U.S. Department of Energy to sequence wine yeast genome
Story Date: 7/29/2009
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Source: NCSU College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, 7/28/09
Ever had a glass of wine that tasted the way a barnyard smells? The culprit likely was a yeast, /Dekkera (Brettanomyces) bruxellensis/, that plagues wine production worldwide. North Carolina State University
researcher Dr. Trevor Phister is leading the charge to control the yeast and potentially reprogram it to add value in bioethanol production.
Phister, assistant professor of food, bioprocessing and nutrition sciences at NC State, and collaborators from five other labs submitted a proposal to the United States Department of Energy Joint Genome
Institute (JGI) for sequencing of the /Dekkera /genome. Sequencing, or determining the exact order of base pairs in a DNA molecule, will shed light on how the organism works and could pave the way for future
research. The proposal was approved through the JGI Community Sequencing Program, and work will begin soon.
Along with Phister, the project’s principal investigator, the team comprises Dr. Scott Baker of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Dr. Linda Bisson of the University of California, Davis, Dr. Fred
Dietrich of Duke University, Dr. Thomas Henick-Kling of Washington State University and Dr. Jure Piskur of Lund University in Sweden.
“From a microbial spoilage standpoint in wine, this yeast is the big problem we have,” Phister said. “Because the yeast thrives in high-ethanol environments, it also is a contaminant in biofuel
fermentations, causing a decrease in the amount of ethanol that those fermentations produce.”
Phister’s lab will provide JGI with the DNA of the yeast, and JGI will sequence it. Phister said the final step is for his team to examine the finished genome to make sure it is annotated properly. It’s a big
project: The /Dekkera /genome has about 7,000 genes.
“There are people around the world trying to use the yeast to produce acetic acid and ethanol, but the full genome hasn’t ever been sequenced,” he said. “I know from my interaction with the wine community
that there are labs in Australia, France and South Africa eager to use this sequence.
“Once we’re finished, we hope that the sequence will help in developing control measures for /Dekkera /in both wine and biofuel fermentations,” Phister said. “We’re also looking at adapting the yeast and trying to
use it for fuel production.”
Phister expects the project to last from one to three years.
“It’s going to be an exciting project,” he said, “and it will shape the
direction of future research.”
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