Osmotolerance and leavening ability in sweet and frozen sweet dough. Comparative analysis between Torulaspora delbrueckii and Saccharomyces cerevisiae baker's yeast strains.

The response of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and freeze-tolerant Torulaspora delbrueckii strains to osmotic stress and their CO2 production capacity in sweet and frozen-sweet dough has been examined. T. delbrueckii strains, IGC5321 and IGC5323 showed higher leavening ability than Saccharomyces, specially after exposure to hyperosmotic stress of bread dough containing 20% sucrose and 2% salt added. In addition, Torulaspora and especially T. delbrueckii IGC5321 exhibited no loss of CO2 production capacity during freeze-thaw stress. Overall, these results appeared to indicate that Torulaspora cells are more tolerant than Saccharomyces to osmotic stress of bread dough. This trait correlated with a low invertase activity, a slow rate of trehalose mobilisation and the ability to respond rapidly to osmotic stress. Growth behaviour on high osmotic synthetic media was also examined. Cells of the IGC5321 strain showed intrinsic osmotolerance and ion toxicity resistance. However, T. delbrueckii IGC5323 exhibited a clear phenotype of osmosensitivity. Hence, this characteristic may not be essential or the only determinant for leavening ability in salted high-sugar dough.