Zygosaccharomyces bailii IST302 genome sequencing. Zygosaccharomyces bailii IST302

The yeast species Zygosaccharomyces bailii exhibits a remarkable but poorly understood intrinsic resistance to acetic acid and other weak acids used as food preservatives, being the most significant spoilage yeast especially in acidic drinks and food products. Z. bailii may also be explored in Biotechnology as cell factory when the growth substrates or the bioproducts envisaged includes deleterious concentrations of a wide range of weak acids. The sequence and annotation of the genome of the haploid, non-flocculating strain Z. bailii IST302, isolated from a spontaneous fermentation of grape must, is essential to facilitate the use of genetic engineering technology in this species, which is much more susceptible to manipulate genetically and to study the physiology, compared with the 2 strains with the genome sequence currently available: ISA1307 which is indeed a flocculating hybrid strain, derived from Z. bailii and a closely related species and the highly flocculating CLIB213T. Such better performance of strain IST302 will allow a systems-level understanding of the molecular mechanisms of stress tolerance envisaging the rational control of the activity of this highly threatening spoilage yeast, as well as for inspiring and guiding novel biotechnological applications.