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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Fungal Biol.

Sec. Fungal Genomics and Evolution

Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/ffunb.2025.1643880

This article is part of the Research TopicNative Yeasts: Isolation, Characterization, and Food Industry ApplicationsView all articles

Microbial communities from distinct Vitis species shape volatile profiles of fermenting juices while preserving varietal typicity

Provisionally accepted
  • 1Universidad Nacional de Cordoba Facultad de Ciencias Quimicas, Córdoba, Argentina
  • 2Universidad Nacional de Cordoba Facultad de Ciencias Agropecuarias, Córdoba, Argentina
  • 3National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • 4Universidad de la Republica Facultad de Quimica, Montevideo, Uruguay

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Spontaneously fermenting grape juices represent complex ecosystems resulting from the dynamic interaction between the unique characteristics of a grape varietal and its indigenous associated microbiota. The extent to which specific grape variety volatile compounds versus microbially derived ones shape wine identity remains incompletely understood. In this work, we explored this issue by characterizing the volatile compound profiles at early stages of fermentation of the highly aromatic Isabella (V. labrusca L.) grape juice, conducted by native microbial communities prepared from either Isabella (homologous fermentation) or Malbec (V. vinifera L., heterologous fermentation) grapes.Results revealed that microbial starters derived from V. labrusca L. and V. vinifera L. markedly influenced the volatile profiles of the resulting fermented Isabella grape juices.Joint analysis of volatile profiles from Malbec and Isabella juices fermented with the same set of Vitis-specific microbial communities showed that, despite the strong influence of the microbial consortia, the fermented juices retained traits consistent with their original grape varietal identity. Characterization and identification of cultivable yeast species in these homologous and heterologous fermentations of Isabella grape juice showed H. uvarum, H. opuntiae, and S. bacillaris as dominant species in Malbec and Isabella microbial ecosystems. Our results highlight the potential of this innovative experimental approach to examine the relative roles of microbial communities and grape varietals in shaping wine identity. Moreover, they show that different Vitis-specific microbiota can distinctly influence the volatile profiles of a fermenting grape juice without altering its varietal identity.

Keywords: terroir, Non-Saccharomyces, Volatile profile, Fermentation, Isabella

Received: 09 Jun 2025; Accepted: 28 Aug 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Raymond Eder, Fariña, Carrau and Rosa. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Alberto Luis Rosa, National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina

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