Breeding of yeast strains with intracellular amino acid accumulation for value-added alcoholic beverages

The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae converts amino acids into volatile compounds with fruity and floral aromas during fermentation. These amino acid-derived aroma compounds play a critical role in defining the taste and flavor of alcoholic beverages such as sake, beer, and wine. The productivity of amino acid-derived aroma compounds depends on the intracellular availability of their precursor amino acids. Therefore, breeding yeast strains that accumulate amino acids provides a practical approach to developing alcoholic beverages with more unique and attractive sensory characteristics. In this minireview, we describe the isolation of yeast strains that overproduce branched-chain amino acids and phenylalanine, obtained through conventional mutagenesis of industrial brewing yeasts. We also discuss the mechanisms responsible for the increased production of these amino acids in the mutant strains, including altered feedback regulation and transcriptional control of key enzymes involved in their biosynthesis. In addition, we briefly introduce a plasmid-free genome editing system that enables precise modification of metabolic pathways without the integration of foreign DNA, allowing the construction of strains that are not classified as genetically modified organisms. This method represents a promising tool that allows flexible and fine-tuned engineering of yeast metabolic pathways, including the development of strains with tailored aroma profiles.