Researchers in Belgium have enhanced the taste of modern beer by locating and genetically modifying a gene that significantly contributes to the taste of beer and many other alcoholic beverages. The study is published in the American Society for Microbiology journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
Beer was traditionally produced in open, horizontal vats. However, the industry transitioned to employing larger, closed containers in the 1970s because they are more simple to load, empty and clean, allowing for higher production rates and lower costs. However, due to insufficient flavor production, these contemporary processes produced beer of lower quality.
During fermentation, the yeast converts half of the mash’s sugar into ethanol and the other half into carbon dioxide. The point is that the pressure of the carbon dioxide inside these sealed containers dampens the flavor.
At the Katholieke Universitt, Johann Thevelin, PhD, an emeritus professor of molecular cell biology, and his group invented a technique for identifying genes in yeast that were in charge of characteristics important to industry. They used this technique to identify the genes responsible for flavor in beer, by analyzing a large number of yeast strains to determine which did the greatest job of maintaining flavor under pressure. . Thevelin, who founded NovelYeast and works with other businesses in industrial biotechnology, said he focused on a gene for a taste like banana because it is “one of the most essential flavors present in beer, along with as well as in other alcoholic beverages.”
To our surprise, we found a single mutation in the MDS3 gene, which encodes for a regulator that is involved in the synthesis of isoamyl acetate, the source of the banana-like taste and which was responsible for most of the pressure tolerance in this particular . yeast strain, Thevelin said.
Thevelein and his colleagues next engineered this mutation in additional brewing strains using the state-of-the-art gene editing technique CRISPR/Cas9, which also increased the bacteria’s tolerance of carbon dioxide pressure and enabled fuller flavor. Thevelein said it “highlighted the scientific relevance of our discoveries and their commercial potential.”
Thevelein noted that the MDS3 protein is a component of an important regulatory pathway that may play a role in carbon dioxide inhibition of banana flavor production, adding that “how it does this is unclear.” He said the mutation is the first insight into understanding the mechanism by which high carbon dioxide pressure can compromise the production of beer’s flavor.
Additionally, the method has proven effective in the detection of genetic components important for the synthesis of rose flavor by yeast in alcoholic beverages, as well as other commercially important characteristics, including glycerol production and thermotolerance.
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