[Behaviour of a wild Saccharomyces cerevisae killer yeast and its isogenic sensitive one with respect to different nitrogen sources in mixed cultures].

Wine chemical composition is the outcome of complex chemosensory interactions that are difficult to predict because of the influences of many variables, like as yeast-yeast interactions. Killer phenomenon implicates the secretion of a toxic protein by some yeasts, that kill other yeasts called sensitive. The knowledge of the behaviour of killer-sensitive mixed cultures in aerobic conditions is useful to be related with the first stages of oenological fermentation. In these stages it can be defined the killer prevalence in the medium. Also, the use of cured plasmid mutants allows better comparisons. The objective was to analyse the mechanism of substrate competition in Saccharomyces cerevisiae killer strains and its sensitive cured plasmid mutant, using different nitrogen sources. When samples were incubated at the toxin inactivation temperature, the infraestimation of sensitive cells is avoided. Results obtained in co-cultures (50%K-50%S) show the role of the nitrogen source in killer activity. Results obtained with 10%K-90%S inoculum, show that there are another competence variables than the competitive exclusion model for killer yeasts.