Identification of three robust and efficient Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains isolated from Brazilian's cachaça distilleries

Three isolated strains from Brazilian's cachaça distilleries were tested for glucose consumption and ethanol production during the fermentation process. The ethanol productivity, cell viability and mitochondrial mutagenic rate of each strain was evaluated at the end of a 24 h-fermentation round. The strains’ resistance to the fermentation process was evaluated after cell recycling followed by another round of fermentation. Among the isolated industrial strains evaluated, the strains CCA083 and CA751 has shown the best performance in terms of productivity and yield. The cachaça strain CCA083 was able to keep a high glucose consumption and ethanol productivity during the second fermentation round. This result suggests that the stress response mechanism is activated due to the heat shock pretreatment, which creates a protective effect on the cell. Therefore, these results could bring up to light a new framework for industries and researchers in order to develop strains with increased stress tolerance on first and second-generation ethanol production.