© USDA
A new enzyme that enhances the health benefits of wine and prevents the onset of headaches and nausea has been developed by a team of US-based researchers.
Led by Yong-Su Jin of the University of Illinois, the group have demonstrated how the new RNA-guided Cas9 nuclease can be used for “precise metabolic engineering” of the polyploid saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is widely used in the fermentation of wine.
By genetically engineering the yeast species, the researchers prevented the so-called “hangover” that sometimes results from wine consumption and could dramatically improve the health benefits associated with the beverage. The discovery could also have further implications on a variety of fermented foods and drinks.
The findings were published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
Professor Jin said: “Wine… contains the healthful component resveratrol. With engineered yeast, we could increase the amount of resveratrol in a variety of wine by ten times or more. But we could also add metabolic pathways to introduce bioactive compounds from other foods, such as ginseng, into the wine yeast. Or we could put resveratrol-producing pathways into yeast strains used for beer, kefir, cheese, kimchee, or pickles – any food that uses yeast fermentation in its production.
“Scientists need to create designed mutations to determine the function of specific genes. Say we have a yeast that produces a wine with great flavour and we want to know why. We delete one gene, then another, until the distinctive flavour is gone, and we know we’ve isolated the gene responsible for that characteristic.”
© FoodBev Media Ltd 2024