Stress tolerance of natural isolates of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, isolated from the Atlantic Forest

Abstract

Natural isolates of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae represent a potential source of new strains and/or genes, to be employed in industrial processes, such as in the production of fuel ethanol. Currently, there are only around 6 commercial strains of S. cerevisiae, available to the producers, which are inoculated into the process at the beginning of each sugar cane crushing season. In many cases, the inoculated strain does not persist in the fermentation vessels, and the microbial population is taken over by other strains. For these reasons, it becomes necessary to isolate and characterize new strains of S. cerevisiae. Here, we propose to investigate strains that were recently isolated from Atlantic Forest biomes. The work will deal with the evaluation of stress tolerance, which is a pre-requisite for a strain to be employed industrially or improved for industrial performance.