Yeast autolytic mutants potentially useful for sparkling wine production.

A selection method, based on a temperature-sensitive autolytic phenotype, has been used to genetically improve a second fermentation Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast strain by UV mutagenesis. The mutations carried by the resulting strains affected cell morphology, growth kinetics, sporulation and the release of nitrogenous compounds in an accelerated autolysis experimental model. Their fermentation power was not severely impaired.