Fate of DNA during must fermentation

To investigate whether wine still contains DNA either from vine or yeast an advanced method was establish to extract and purify DNA from must and wine. To distinguish genetic material from vine and yeast primers were designed from the chitinsynthase gene of yeast (product size app.800 bp) and a consensus primer from the chlorophyll a/b- binding protein gene specific for higher plants (product size app. 550 bp) and used for PCR analysis. In addition micro satellite markers used for molecular characterisation of vines have been tested i.e. VVMD5 (product size app. 250 bp). Whereas the larger products could only be detected in must the primer for the micro satellite markers led to products in young wine up to the age of 6 months.