Improvement of ethanol-tolerance of haploid Saccharomyces diastaticus

Several mutation procedures have been compared to obtain an ethanol-tolerant Saccharomyces diastaticus strain secreting glucoamylase. These procedures include spontaneous mutation, EMS treatment, UV irradiation, and combination of EMS treatment and UV irradiation. All these methods were followed by adaptation of the yeast cells to gradually higher ethanol concentration. Among these procedures, the combined method of EMS treatment and UV irradiation gave the promising result, i.e. the ethanol tolerance of the yeast increased from 11.5%(v/v) to 14.0%(v/v). Respiratory deficient petite mutants of industrial and ethanol-tolerant yeast strains have been isolated and hybridized with haploid S. diastaticus strains. The resulting hybrids showed increased ethanol tolerance and starch-fermentability