4. Discussion 4.1. A new method for real-time monitoring ofextracellular proteolytic activity during alcoholic fermentation The proteolytic activity of M. pulcherrima has already been reported in several studies (Charoenchai et al., 1997: Comitini et al., 2011; Fernandez et al. 2000). Recently, Reid et al. (2012) identified and sequenced the extracellular aspartic protease-encoding gene MpAPr1 from M. pulcherrima IWBT Y1123. The same kind of gene has also been identified in another wine yeast, Candida apicola, as well as other M. pulcherrima strains The intensity of protease activity has been dem- onstrated to be strain-dependent and unrelated to the gene sequence.