Yeast Habitats: Different but Global

Microorganisms are widely distributed in a multitude of environments including ecosystems that show challenging features to most life forms. The combination of extreme physical and chemical factors contributes to the definition of extreme habitats although the definition of extreme environments changes depending on one's point of view: anthropocentric, microbial-centric or zymo-centric. Microorganisms that live under conditions that cause hard survival are called extremophiles. In particular organisms that require extreme conditions are called true extremophiles while organisms that tolerate them to some extent are termed extremotolerant. Deviation of temperature, pH, osmotic stress, pressure and radiation from the common range delineates extreme environments. Yeasts are versatile eukaryotic organisms that are not frequently considered the toughest microorganisms in comparison with prokaryotes. Nevertheless extremophilic or extremotolerant species are present also within this group. Here a brief description is provided of the main extreme habitats and the metabolic and physiological modifications adopted by yeasts depending on their adverse conditions. Additionally the main extremophilic and extremotolerant yeast species associated with a few extreme habitats are listed.

Section: Frequent Yeasts From Extreme Environments: Tough Survivorsmentioning

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Section: Some Like It Hotmentioning

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Section: Acid That Eats Everythingmentioning

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Section: Frequent Yeasts From Extreme Environments: Tough Survivorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

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See 3 more Smart Citations

Extremophilic yeasts: the toughest yeasts around?

Buzzini

Turchetti

Yurkov

2018

Yeasts from temperate forests

Mozzachiodi

Bai

Baldrián

et al. 2022

Self Cite

Yeasts are ubiquitous in temperate forests. While this broad habitat is well‐defined, the yeasts inhabiting it and their life cycles, niches, and contributions to ecosystem functioning are less understood. Yeasts are present on nearly all sampled substrates in temperate forests worldwide. They associate with soils, macroorganisms, and other habitats and no doubt contribute to broader ecosystem‐wide processes. Researchers have gathered information leading to hypotheses about yeasts' niches and their life cycles based on physiological observations in the laboratory as well as genomic analyses, but the challenge remains to test these hypotheses in the forests themselves. Here, we summarize the habitat and global patterns of yeast diversity, give some information on a handful of well‐studied temperate forest yeast genera, discuss the various strategies to isolate forest yeasts, and explain temperate forest yeasts' contributions to biotechnology. We close with a summary of the many future directions and outstanding questions facing researchers in temperate forest yeast ecology. Yeasts present an exciting opportunity to better understand the hidden world of microbial ecology in this threatened and global habitat.

Different plant compartments, different yeasts: The example of the bromeliad phyllosphere

Félix

Nascimento

Valente

et al. 2022

The plant phyllosphere is one of the largest sources of microorganisms, including yeasts. In bromeliads, the knowledge of yeasts is dispersed and still incipient. To understand the extent of our knowledge of the subject, this review proposes to compile and synthesize existing knowledge, elucidating possible patterns, biotechnological and taxonomic potentials, bringing to light new knowledge, and identifying information gaps. For such, we systematically review scientific production on yeasts in bromeliads using various databases. The results indicated that the plant compartments flowers, fruits, leaves, and water tank (phytotelma) have been studied when focusing on the yeast community in the bromeliad phyllosphere. More than 180 species of yeasts and yeast-like fungi were recorded from the phyllosphere, 70% were exclusively found in one of these four compartments and only 2% were shared among all. In addition, most of the community had a low frequency of occurrence, and approximately half of the species had a single record.Variables such as bromeliad subfamilies and functional types, as well as plant compartments, were statistically significant, though inconclusive and with low explanatory power. At least 50 yeast species with some biotechnological potentials have been isolated from bromeliads. More than 90% of these species were able to produce extracellular enzymes. In addition, other biotechnological applications have also been recorded. Moreover, new species have been described, though yeasts were only exploited in approximately 1% of the existing bromeliads species, which highlights that there is still much to be explored. Nevertheless, it appears that we are still far from recovering the completeness of the diversity of yeasts in this host. Furthermore, bromeliads proved to be a good ecological model for prospecting new yeasts and for studies on the interaction between plants and yeasts. In addition, the yeast community diverged among plant compartments, establishing bromeliads as a microbiologically complex and heterogeneous mosaic.