RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Mycobiota of Barbera Grapes from the Piedmont Region from a Single Vintage Year JF American Journal of Enology and Viticulture JO Am. J. Enol. Vitic. FD American Society for Enology and Viticulture SP ajev.2014.14071 DO 10.5344/ajev.2014.14071 A1 Valentina Alessandria A1 Fabio Marengo A1 Vasileios Englezos A1 Vincenzo Gerbi A1 Kalliopi Rantsiou A1 Luca Cocolin YR 2014 UL http://www.ajevonline.org/content/early/2014/12/05/ajev.2014.14071.abstract AB In this paper a description of the yeast populations present on grapes of the Barbera cultivar is reported. Fifteen vineyards in the Monferrato area, in the Piedmont region – North West of Italy, were sampled at maturation during the vintage 2012. Grapes were subjected to culture dependent and independent analysis. By plate count on WLN medium a yeast load of about 102 colony forming units (cfu)/mL was determined on the grapes. A total of 206 isolates were identified by using two different molecular approaches. The results obtained through the two identification techniques, PCR-RFLP analysis of the 5.8S-ITS rRNA region and PCR-DGGE coupled with sequencing of the 26S rRNA gene, resulted highly reproducible and comparable, confirming these methods as two reliable identification tools in the study of wine yeast ecology. Through both techniques, a mycobiota mainly constituted by Aureobasidium pullulans (73% of the isolates), followed by Rhodotorula glutinis (12%), Hanseniaspora spp. (8%), Issatchenkia terricola (5%), Torulaspora delbruekii (1%) and Cryptococcus carnescens (1%) was described. Moreover, DNA and RNA extracted directly from grapes were subjected to PCR-DGGE confirming the presence of A. pullulans. H. uvarum and Starmerella bacillaris (synonym Candida zemplinina) were also detected.