An AFLP based method for the detection and identification of indigenous yeast in complex must samples without a microbiological culture.

Ribera de Duero Spanish wines are appreciated worldwide for their organoleptic characteristics; however, the wine market is very competitive, and the demand for high quality natural wines has been increasing in recent years. The microbiology of the process, specifically the yeasts involved in the alcoholic fermentation, constitutes an essential element directly related to the complexity and quality of the wine. Our work has focused on the development of a procedure to identify the indigenous wine yeasts present in complex samples of must and wine, without requiring colony isolation or a microbiological culture. The procedure is based on the use of AFLP molecular markers. The AFLP allele profiles obtained from complex samples are compared with the species-specific ones previously determined and included in a database using a sorting algorithm. The system allows a fast and efficient identification of yeast species and strains present in complex must and wine samples. This information can then be used by the enologists during the fermentation process in order to obtain signed wines.