Genome Sequencing and Comparative Analysis of Three Indigenous Wine Strains Reveal Remarkable Biotechnological Potential.

A current trend in winemaking has highlighted the beneficial contribution of non- yeasts to wine quality. is one of the more represented non- species onto grape berries and plays a critical role in influencing the wine sensory profile, in terms of complexity and organoleptic richness. In this work, we analyzed a group of indigenous wine strains as for genetic as for technological traits, such as resistance to SO and β-glucosidase activity. Three strains were selected for genome sequencing, assembly and comparative genomic analyses at species and genus level. genomes appeared compact and contained a moderate number of genes, while rarefaction analyses suggested an open accessory genome, reflecting a rather incomplete representation of the gene pool in the currently available genomes. The analyses of patterns of functional annotation in the three indigenous strains showed distinct enrichment for several PFAM protein domains. In particular, for certain traits, such as flocculation related protein domains, the genetic prediction correlated well with relative flocculation phenotypes at lab-scale. This feature, together with the enrichment for oligo-peptide transport and lipid and amino acid metabolism domains, reveals a promising potential of these indigenous strains to be applied in fermentation processes and modulation of wine flavor and aroma. This study also contributes to increasing the catalog of publicly available genomes from strains isolated from natural grape samples and provides a good roadmap for unraveling the biodiversity and the biotechnological potential of these non- yeasts.