Biotransformation of vanillin into vanillyl alcohol by a novel strain of Cystobasidium laryngis isolated from decaying wood

Abstract

Vanillin is an aromatic aldehyde found as a component of lignocellulosic material, and in the cured pods of orchidaceae plants. Like other phenolic substances, vanillin has antimicrobial activity and can be extracted from lignin either by a thermo-chemical process or through microbial degradation. Vanillin, can serve as a model monomer in biodegradation studies of lignin. In the present study, a yeast isolated from decaying wood on the Faroe Islands, was identified as Cystobasidium laryngis strain FMYD002, based on internal transcribed spacer sequence analysis. It demonstrated the ability to convert vanillin to vanillyl alcohol, as detected by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography–quadrupole-time-of-flight. Structural analysis of vanillyl alcohol was carried out by using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry and 1H NMR spectroscopy, and further verified by synthesis. The reduction of vanillin to vanillyl alcohol has been documented for only a few species of fungi. However, to our knowledge, this biotransformation has not yet been reported for basidiomycetous yeast species, nor for any representative of the subphylum Pucciniomycotina. The biotransformation capability of the present strain might prove useful in the industrial utilisation of lignocellulosic residues.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13568-018-0666-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Growth of wood-inhabiting yeasts of the Faroe Islands in the presence of spent sulphite liquor

“…The wood was ground with a glass rod for one minute and the resulting suspension was diluted 1:100 in sterile tap water. After vortexing, aliquots of 100 µl of diluted suspensions were plated on yeast extract peptone dextrose (YPD) medium (Zimbro et al 2003 ), supplemented with 20.0 g bacteriological agar l –1 and antibiotics, as previously described (Rönnander et al 2018 ). The yeast isolates were deposited in the culture collection at the University of Gävle, Sweden (UGCC) and maintained at –80 °C in a medium consisting of 15% glycerol in liquid YPD medium (Supplementary Table S3).…”

“…The complete list of sampled locations is presented in Supplementary Table S2; Accession numbers of D1/D2 and ITS sequences for reference strains were retrieved from Genbank d The ITS sequence and its homology was determined for Cys. laryngis isolate FMYD002 in Rönnander et al 2018 . The D1/D2 sequence was determined in the present study e The reference strains: O. thermophila CBS11284 T , a thermophilic strain, Cys.…”

“…d The ITS sequence and its homology was determined for Cys. laryngis isolate FMYD002 in Rönnander et al 2018 . The D1/D2 sequence was determined in the present study…”

“…Genomic DNA extraction and PCR amplification were carried out for all isolates, according to the protocol used for Cystobasidium laryngis FMYD002 (Rönnander et al 2018). The LSU rDNA D1/D2 region was amplified by using the primers NL1 (5 0 GCA TAT CAA TAA GCG GAG GAA AAG) and NL4 (5 0 GGT CCG TGT TTC AAG ACG G), and the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region was amplified by using the primers ITS4 (5 0 TCC TCC GCT TAT TGA TAT GC) and ITS5 (5 0 GGA AGT AAA AGT CGT AAC AAG G) (White et al 1990).…”

Carotenoid-Producing Yeasts: Identification and Characteristics of Environmental Isolates with a Valuable Extracellular Enzymatic Activity

“…The search for diversity in Nature recently led to the recognition of new yeast species within the Cystobasidium genus, such as Cystobasidium oligophagum, Cystobasidium laryngis, Cystobasidium iriomotense. They appear to be capable of converting agro industry by-products, and have been proposed as oil or enzyme producers [19][20][21]. Thus, it is of great interest to further explore this field and search for new basidiomycetes yeast and examine their biotechnological potential.…”