The yeast Candida zemplinina (Starmerella bacillaris) shows high genetic diversity in winemaking environments.

The yeast Candida zemplinina (Starmerella bacillaris) is frequently isolated from grape and wine environments. Its enological use in mixed fermentation with S. cerevisiae has been extensively investigated these last years, and several interesting features, including low ethanol production, fructophily, glycerol and other metabolites production, have been described. In addition, molecular tools allowing the characterization of yeast populations have been developed, both at the inter- and intraspecific levels. However, most of these fingerprinting methods are not compatible with population genetics or ecological studies. In this work, we developed ten microsatellite markers for the C. zemplinina species that were used for the genotyping of 163 strains from nature or various enological regions (28 vineyards/wineries from seven countries). We show that the genetic diversity of C. zemplinina is shaped by geographical localisation. Populations isolated from winemaking environments are quite diverse at the genetic level: neither clonal-like behaviour nor specific genetic signature was associated with the different vineyards/wineries. Altogether, these results suggest that C. zemplinina is not under selective pressure in winemaking environments.