Use of RAPD analysis for differentiation among six enological Saccharomyces spp. strains

Two molecular typing techniques, amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analys is and random amplified polymorphic DNA assay, were evaluated for discrimin ation among six strains previously identified as synonymous of Saccharomyce s cerevisiae by classical physiological characteristics and enological crit eria. The first method that used restriction patterns originated by the amp lification of internal transcribed spacers (ITS1 and ITS2) and the ribosoma l gene 5.8S did not allow the differentiation among the six strains. On the contrary, reproducible amplicon fingerprints for the Saccharomyces spp. st rains were obtained by random amplified polymorphic DNA assay using twenty one different primers. Among them, only four primers allowed discrimination among the six Saccharomyces spp. tested. The percentage of similarity betw een all species tested ranged from 40 to 80 %. The potential of the random amplified polymorphic DNA assay analysing the diversity of wine yeast speci es and developing polymerase chain reaction primers for wine yeast characte risation is discussed.