Homogeneity of interspecific hybrids between Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces uvarum by phenotypic and transcriptional analysis.

Oenological traits, such as temperature profile and production of certain metabolites, were tested for four interspecifc hybrids obtained by “spore to spore” crossing between Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces uvarum strains and uniformity of their inheritance was found. PCR/RFLP analysis of ITSregions was carried out to confirm the hybrid nature of the strains. They showed an additive profile with five bands of the respective 325, 230, 170 and 125 bp.Finally gene expression study was performed by comparative DNA macroarray analysis of the hybrids and the preliminary results showed that the global geneexpression patterns of hybrids are remarkably similar to one another.In conclusion, the data obtained by two different approaches, such as metabolic and transcriptomic strategies, suggest a large degree of homogeneity amonginterspecific hybrids between S. cerevisiae and S. uvarum. Moreover, theuniformity of F1 hybrids advises that the oenological trait inheritance mechanismis highly constant and reproducible