Protoplast fusion, increased production

Similar techniques were used by Shinohara et al (71) to develop hybrids with increased production of fusel alcohols and esters. Protoplast fusion techniques have been used to confer amylolytic activity to brewery yeasts (22) and ethanol tolerance to wine yeasts (70) Farris et al (72) used protoplast fusion to produce hybrids with killer factor that is, the ability to secrete proteinic toxins. Kunkee and coworkers (25) utilized a leucine auxotrophic mutant strain of S. cerevisiae (UCD Montrachet 522) to produce base wine for brandy production the mutant strain produces less isoamyl alcohol, reducing the quantity of fusel alcohols in the subsequent brandy. And Thornton (48) discussed the progress in utilizing plasmid vectors to introduce new genes into wine yeasts he cautioned, however, that until the yeast genome is better understood that direct gene manipulation techniques will be of limited value. 

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