Occurrence and Diversity of Yeasts in the Mangrove Ecosystems in Fujian, Guangdong and Hainan Provinces of China

Abstract

Mangrove wetland is a unique ecosystem and has rich bioresources. In this article, the roots, stems, branches, leaves, barks, fruits, and flowers from 12 species of the mangrove plants and six species of the accompanying mangrove plants, seawater and sediments in mangrove ecosystems in China were used as sources for isolation of yeasts. A total of 269 yeasts strains were obtained from the samples. The results of routine identification and phylogenetic analysis showed that they belonged to 22 genera and 45 species. Of all the 269 strains, Candida spp. was predominant with the proportion of 44.61%, followed by Kluyveromyces spp. (8.55%), Pichia spp. (7.44%), Kodamaea ohmeri (5.58%), Issatchenkia spp. (4.83%) and Debaryomyces hansenii (4.46%). We also found that strains N02-2.3 and ST3-1Y3 belonged to the undescribed species of Pichia sp. and Trichosporon sp. respectively while strain HN-12 was not related to any known yeast strains. This means that different yeast strains of Candida spp. especially C. tropicalis were widely distributed in the mangrove ecosystems and may have an important role in the mangrove ecosystems. The results also showed that some of them may have potential applications.

Taxonomy ofAureobasidiumspp. and biosynthesis and regulation of their extracellular polymers

“…isolated from diseased marine animals (Wang et al, 2009a, b). In our previous study (Chi et al, 2012b;Liu et al, 2009;Zhang et al, 2012), it was found that some strains of A. pullulans did not produce any melanin during their cell growth. They may be identified to be different new varieties of A. pullulans.…”

“…are ubiquitous species found mainly in soil, including Antarctic soils, water, the phylloplane, wood, and many other plant materials, rocks, monuments and limestone (Urz'| et al, 1999). In recent years, they also have been found to be widely distributed in hypersaline habitats, coastal water, deep sea, marine sediments of Antarctica and mangrove systems (Chi et al, 2012b;Gunde-Cimerman et al, 2000;Zhang et al, 2012).…”

Melanin production by a yeast strain XJ5-1 of Aureobasidium melanogenum isolated from the Taklimakan desert and its role in the yeast survival in stress environments

“…Melanin had an obvious effect on an extremely halotolerant and black yeast Hortaea werneckii survival to the oxidative stress caused by H 2 O 2 (Kejzar et al 2013). Like seawater, the mangrove ecosystems are also characterized by high concentration of NaCl and other salts (Chi et al 2012). Therefore, A. melanogenum P5 strain had higher tolerance to high concentration of NaCl than the non-melanized yeast cells of the yeast strain XJ5-1.…”

“…Amplification of its Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS1 region) and D1/D2 domain of the 26S rRNA gene from the genomic DNA by PCR was performed according to the methods described by Chi et al (2012). The common primers for amplification of the ITS and the 26S rDNA in the yeast were used, the forward primers for the ITS and the 26S rDNA were IT-5 and XJS5, respectively, and the reverse primers for the ITS and the 26S rDNA were IT-6 and XJS3, respectively ( Table 1).…”

“…In recent years, it has been found that the mangrove ecosystems in Hainan, China offer numerous microhabitats with the potential of harboring yeast communities (Chi et al 2012;Liu et al 2014;Wang et al 2014). It is thought that the Taklimakan desert is geographically isolated from the mangrove ecosystems in Hainan.…”