Effect of copper stress on growth characteristics and fermentation properties of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the pathway of copper adsorption during wine fermentation

The effect of copper stress on the fermentation performance of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and its copper adsorption pathway during alcoholic fermentation were investigated in this study. At the limits imposed by the regulations of the European Union and South African (⩽20 mg/l), copper had no effect on the cell growth of S. cerevisiae, but its fermentation performance was inhibited to a certain extent. Therefore, the regulated limit should be further reduced (⩽12.8 mg/l). Under 9.6-19.2 mg/l copper stress, S. cerevisiae could absorb copper; the copper removal ratio and the unit strain adsorption were 60-81% and 2.72-9.65 mg/g, respectively. S. cerevisiae has a non-biological adsorption of copper, but compared with biological (living yeast) adsorption, the non-biological adsorption was very low. The copper adsorption way of S. cerevisiae was primarily via biological (living yeast) adsorption, which was a two-step process.