The yeast that is the natural source of the fermentation of wine, beer, and bread is carried in the intestines of wasps. The yeast called Saccharomyces cerevisiae can only mate in the intestines of wasps. The yeast is commonly called brewer’s yeast. Irene Stefanini from the Centre for Research and Innovation in Trento, Italy and colleagues from Spain and Montevideo are the first to examine the mating habits of the yeast that makes wine and beer possible.
The researchers found several mating behaviors for yeast that have never before been seen before. Saccharomyces cerevisiae was found to mate with wild yeast Saccharomyces paradoxus for the first time. Saccharomyces paradoxus received DNA transfered from the mating that allows this yeast to survive in a wasp’s gut.
Brewer’s yeast has been cultured industrially for centuries. The volume of wine and beer produced could not depend on the amount of brewer’s yeast deposited on wine grapes or the grains and hops that make beer by wasps alone. The first wine and beer were dependent on the yeast that wasps defecated on the grains that make beer and the grapes that make wine. The yeast is still deposited by wasps in the present time.
Wine making is at least 7,000 years old. The first known beer making occurred 6,000 years ago. The oldest known wasp fossil is 34 million years old. Yeast may be one of the first organisms to have evolved.
The study poses some as yet unanswered questions. Wasps inhabit a relatively small region of land for generations. The exchange of DNA between brewer’s yeast and other strains of yeast in wasp intestines may be responsible for some of the flavor that regional wines have. Differences in the yeast in wasp poop could be the flavor notes that make some wines special.
