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From vineyard to winery: a source map of microbial diversity driving wine fermentation
Author(s) -
MorrisonWhittle Peter,
Goddard Matthew R.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
environmental microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.954
H-Index - 188
eISSN - 1462-2920
pISSN - 1462-2912
DOI - 10.1111/1462-2920.13960
Subject(s) - vineyard , biology , wine , winery , aroma , habitat , fermentation , bark (sound) , microorganism , ecosystem , fungal diversity , botany , ecology , food science , horticulture , bacteria , genetics
Summary Humans have been making wine for thousands of years and microorganisms play an integral part in this process as they not only drive fermentation, but also significantly influence the flavour, aroma and quality of finished wines. Since fruits are ephemeral, they cannot comprise a permanent microbial habitat; thus, an age‐old unanswered question concerns the origin of fruit and ferment associated microbes. Here we use next‐generation sequencing approaches to examine and quantify the roles of native forest, vineyard soil, bark and fruit habitats as sources of fungal diversity in ferments. We show that microbial communities in harvested juice and ferments vary significantly across regions, and that while vineyard fungi account for ∼40% of the source of this diversity, uncultivated ecosystems outside of vineyards also prove a significant source. We also show that while communities in harvested juice resemble those found on grapes, these increasingly resemble fungi present on vine bark as the ferment proceeds.