Yeasts biodiversity and its significance: case studies in natural and human-related environments, ex situ preservation, applications and challenges

Abstract:

Yeasts are a group of microorganisms that belongs to the Fungal Kingdom. These unicellular fungi are distributed between the Basidiomycota and Ascomycota Phyla, being a paraphyletic group. Since 1865, its study has experienced a very important advance in terms of its understanding, characterization and taxonomic accommodation. Nevertheless, it is estimated that about 99% of the potential biodiversity of this group of eukaryotic microorganisms is still unknown. That is why there is a need for increasing efforts to study yeast biodiversity, especially in mega diverse countries from the tropical regions of the planet. To date, the majority of yeast species catalogued have been discovered in countries from the Northern hemisphere. Relatively few studies dedicated to yeast biodiversity have been done in tropical zones of the planet and in Southern hemisphere countries that embrace abundant and diverse ecosystems. A number of case studies of these approaches to yeast biodiversity are presented in this chapter, including the discovery and subsequent description of novel yeast species recently isolated in Ecuador, Brazil and Argentina. The chapter will also deal with the biodiversity of yeasts found in industry-influenced environments in Spain. Moreover, ex situ preservation of yeast isolates for further characterization by physiological, morphological and molecular techniques is a fundamental issue in terms of the

Año de publicación:

2011

Keywords:

Fuente:

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