Patagonian origin of lager yeast (Saccharomyces eubayanus)
Origen patagónico de la levadura lager (Saccharomyces eubayanus)
- Date
- 2011 · confidence high
- Place
- Nahuel Huapi National Park, Rio Negro, Argentina
- Credited to
- Diego Libkind and colleagues (CRUB-CONICET)
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
The yeast Saccharomyces eubayanus was isolated in Patagonian Nothofagus forests, the wild species that hybridised with brewer's yeast to give lager yeast (S. pastorianus). It resolved a 500-year-old puzzle.
It is debated how the wild yeast reached Europe in the late Middle Ages (trade, wood or birds); later studies found lineages in China and Tibet closer to the European strain.
What it led to
- newly designed lager strains by hybridisation
- study of the domestication of industrial yeasts
- finds of S. eubayanus in Asia, North America and New Zealand