By Iain MacIntyre
A team of international researchers has isolated a previously-unidentified microbe crucial to the development of lager beer.
Reporting in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America journal, researchers note that lager was first brewed in 15th Century Germany through a fusion of the Saccharomyces cerevisiaeale-yeast with what they have now named Saccharomyces eubayanus.
Traced to Patagonian beech forests at the tip of South America, Saccharomyces eubayanus is speculated to have come to Europe on a piece of wood or the stomach of a fruit fly.
It managed to combine with the yeast used for millennia to make bread and ferment wine and ale, ultimately producing lager.
Saccharomyces eubayanus causes spontaneous fermentation that generates alcohol and is 99.5 percent identical to the previously-unidentified microbe in lager brewing.
“This study shows that combining microbial ecology with comparative genomics facilitates the discovery and preservation of wild genetic stocks of domesticated microbes to trace their history, identify genetic changes and suggest paths to further industrial improvement,” say the researchers.
For more information:
PNAS, Randy Schekman
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