Management and optimisation of the AWRI Wine Microorganism Culture Collection
Abstract
The AWRI Wine Microorganism Culture Collection (AWMCC) contains an extensive collection of yeast and bacteria largely associated with winemaking. The AWMCC has been created from research collections, yeast deletion libraries, and commercial or environmental isolates. Between 2017 and 2022, the AWMCC nearly doubled in size. Microbial strains within the collection are available to winemakers and researchers, enabling product experimentation and differentiation. This project has refined and optimised identification, receival and distribution procedures to improve quality control. In addition, new custom collections have been developed to facilitate high throughput screening of specific microbial genera.
Summary
The AWRI Wine Microorganism Culture Collection (AWMCC) contains more than 20,000 yeast and bacterial strains, including laboratory strains, yeast gene deletion libraries, proprietary strains, fermentation isolates and environmental isolates from Australian wineries. The collection underpins current and ongoing Wine Australia projects and secures investments in germplasm creation and discovery.
The collection significantly increased in size from 2017 to 2022, due to ongoing research activities and isolation of microorganisms from environmental samples. A large proportion (55%) of these isolates were received from Project 4.4.3 – Bioprospecting Australian microbial genetic diversity.
Project 3.4.1 – Understanding Brettanomyces and its adaption to control measures, isolated or generated 779 strains stored in the collection, contributing 71% of the total number of Brettanomyces strains in the collection since its inception. The number and diversity of the Brettanomyces strains span all winemaking regions in Australia and this collection is an invaluable resource for studies to better understand and control this wine spoilage yeast.
The increased demand for AWMCC facilities and the broadening scope of its activities over the project term created some operational challenges. These challenges were overcome by procedural optimisation driving productivity gains. In addition to efficiency gains, these changes, specifically the creation of dedicated screening arrays of defined microbial genera, have created opportunities for the collection, allowing greater access for individuals wishing to study the physiological characteristics of these organisms using higher throughput technologies.
Storage facilities were reorganised to promote more efficient use of the collection. Off-site storage was moved to Adelaide Biobank. The relocation of the AWMCC back-up collection ensures that irreplaceable specimens are archived in a monitored facility, and that specimen data are also archived via the Adelaide Biobank Laboratory Information Management System. The redundancy of physical specimens and associated information ensures that this resource is secured for future generations of researchers and wine industry practitioners.
Quality control (QC) procedures were reviewed and enhanced during the project. Yeast and bacterial submissions and retrievals are now processed through selective media before being entered into the collection or delivered to external parties. The documentation sent to external parties with each requested strain was revised and formalised. Together, these operational improvements ensure that end users can use AWMCC specimens with confidence.
The Australian wine industry invests significant resources into research projects that require microbiological material of known provenance, purity and stability, both for the duration of the project and for potential future projects. Readily available characterisation data for biological research material results in increased opportunity, faster start-up and reduced costs for projects that would otherwise need to perform additional sample selection, identification, and quality assurance. The research outcomes of all microbiological research projects are dependent on the quality and reliability of the microbiological starting material. The AWMCC has underwritten the investment in these projects by ensuring that researchers have access to identified, pure, stable microbiological material of known provenance.