Effect of sugar transport inactivation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae on sluggish and stuck enological fermentations

Abstract

Sluggish and stuck (i.e., very delayed or incomplete) fermentations have been often observed in wine making. Some of them appeared to be associated with insufficient levels of yeast nutrients such as assimilable nitrogen. In these conditions, sugar transport catabolite inactivation, which is triggered by the protein synthesis arrest, may account in part for the inhibition of fermentation. Moreover, this mechanism of inhibition may explain the failure of added ammoniacal nitrogen to nitrogen-limited musts to restore or elevate rate of fermentation after the early yeast growth phase.