3.4 N. atacamensis exhibits a potential utilization in
wine fermentation.
To determine the potential of N. atacamensis for the elaboration
of alcoholic beverages, we conducted initial evaluations of biomass
production under microculture conditions utilizing the
ATA-11A-BT strain as representative of the species.
Various carbon sources and fermentation-related conditions, including
glucose and fructose utilization, as well as ethanol and high glucose
concentration tolerance, were examined, with the EC1118 wine S.
cerevisiae strain used as a comparison. Overall, N. atacamensisATA-11A-BT showed lower growth rates (μmax) as
compared to EC1118 when cultured with 2% glucose or 2% fructose
(p -value < 0.05, one-way ANOVA, Figure 5A ,Table S7 ). When we evaluated growth under the sucrose
disaccharide as a carbon source, we did not observe significant
differences between the N. atacamensis and the S.
cerevisiae strains, where ATA-11A-BT exhibited a
lower µmax than the S. cerevisiae wine strain (p -value
> 0.05, one-way ANOVA, Figure 5A ).
Subsequently, we subjected ATA-11A-BT to ethanol and
high glucose concentrations as stressors. ATA-11A-BTdisplayed a high tolerance to ethanol, as it was able to grow in the
presence of ethanol up to 8% v/v (Figure 5B ). However, the
growth rates of ATA-11A-BT under ethanol conditions
were still lower compared to those of EC1118 (p -value <
0.05, one-way ANOVA). Despite this difference, the observed ethanol
tolerance of ATA-11A-BT highlights its potential for
fermentation processes. Furthermore, the N. atacamensis strain
exhibited a high μmax when cultured in 20% glucose, indicating its
potential suitability for wine fermentation conditions. In this sense,
other species from the same genus, such as N. ishiwadae have been
previously reported to possess high ethanol tolerance and show potential
for oenological applications (Ruiz et al. , 2019, van Wyk et
al. , 2020).