Biodiversity of Yeasts During Plum Wegierka Zwykla Spontaneous Fermentation

Pawel Satora* and Tadeusz Tuszynski

Department of Fermentation Technology and Technical Microbiology, Faculty of Food Technology, Agricultural University, al. 29 Listopada 46, 31-425 Cracow, Poland

Article history:
Received August 28, 2004
Accepted June 28, 2005

Key words:
plums microbiota, indigenous S. cerevisiae, killer sensitivity, strain diversity, slivovitz

Summary:
The study comprises an analysis of the yeast microbiota that participated in the spontaneous fermentation of crushed Wegierka Zwykla plum fruit, which is the raw material for slivovitz production in the mountain region in the south of Poland. Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast strains were differentiated by means of the killer sensitivity analysis related to a killer reference panel of 9 well-known killer yeast strains. The first phase of the fermentation was dominated by the representatives of Kloeckera apiculata and Candida pulcherrima species, which reached their maximum concentration (1.4·10⁶ CFU/mL) after 48 h of the process. Almost all yeasts isolated during the following days were classified as S. cerevisiae and the killer sensitivity analysis revealed a high population diversity of this species and the presence of 14 different strains that changed quantitatively and qualitatively throughout the fermentation period.

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