Abstract

Wine spoilage yeasts are one of the main issues in the winemaking industry, and the control of theBrettanomycesandPichiagenus is an important goal to reduce economic loses from undesired aromatic profiles. Previous studies have demonstrated thatCandida intermediaLAMAP1790 produces antimicrobial peptides of molecular mass under 10 kDa with fungicide activity againstBrettanomyces bruxellensis, without affecting the yeastSaccharomyces cerevisiae. So far, it has not been determined whether these peptides show biocontroller effect in this yeast or other spoilage yeasts, such asPichia guilliermondii. In this work, we determined that the exposure ofB. bruxellensisto the low-mass peptides contained in the culture supernatant ofC. intermediaLAMAP1790 produces a continuous rise of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in this yeast, without presenting a significant effect on membrane damage. These observations can give an approach to the antifungal mechanism. In addition, we described a fungicide activity of these peptides fraction against two strains ofP. guilliermondiiin a laboratory medium. However, carrying out assays on synthetic must, peptides must show an effect on the growth ofB. bruxellensis. Moreover, these results can be considered as a start to develop new strategies for the biocontrol of spoilage yeast.