Genotypic analysis of the FDC1 polymorphism that inhibits ferulic acid decarboxylation activity in industrial yeasts

Abstract

In the production of sake, 4-vinyl guaiacol（4-VG）is produced by the decarboxylation of ferulic acid by ferulic acid decarboxylase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The inactivation of ferulic acid decarboxylase has been reported to be caused by a single nucleotide substitution（c.160A>T）within the ferulic acid decarboxylase gene（FDC1）. Here, we developed a detection method for the single nucleotide polymorphism within FDC1 by a polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism with a mismatched primer. This simple, rapid, and sensitive method is expected to facilitate the discrimination of the 4-VG-producing ability of yeast strains.