Determination of Killer character of wine yeast isolated from Istria. Odrecrossedsignivanje killer karaktera vinskih kvasaca izoliranih sa područja istre

Wild wine yeasts with killer phenotype are widespread in many wine regions of the world. The presence of killer yeasts may become particularly important in wine fermentations conducted by inoculation with selected strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Wild killer yeasts may suppress selected sensitive yeasts inoculated into the must during the fermentation. The goal of this investigation was to identify killer yeast in Istra region using physiological and molecular methods. In total 50 S.cerevisiae strains were tested. Using the physiological methods 17 strains were identified like killer positive and using molecular methods two strains more. Our results are in agreement with some previous ecological surveys.