Yeasts from temperate forests

Abstract

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.

Extensive sampling of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in Taiwan reveals ecology and evolution of predomesticated lineages

“…To conclude, we combined deep sampling, metabarcoding, isolate collection, and whole-genome resequencing to illuminate the predomestication phase of Saccharomyces cerevisiae at an unprecedented resolution. The roles of S. cerevisiae in the temperate forest environment have been studied in detail (Mozzachiodi et al 2022), and we reveal that multiple natural lineages of S. cerevisiae persist in the subtropic and tropical broadleaf forests in Taiwan, indicating that the species is found everywhere but that some genetically differentiated lineages prefer certain substrates. These observations help us to revisit our understanding of eukaryotic microorganism evolution; for instance, an alternating life cycle seems to be a convenient life history trait when genetically diverged partners are around.…”

Macroevolutionary diversity of traits and genomes in the model yeast genus Saccharomyces

“…The presence of all species in association with trees of the order Fagales points to the adaptation of the last common ancestor of Saccharomyces to these hosts. However, there is still much to learn about the ecological distribution of yeasts in general, and Saccharomyces in particular 72 , where sampling has often been biased toward bark and soil samples from Fagales. Even though most new lineages and species likely originated in Asia, our comprehensive global sampling and analyses strongly support the hypothesis that several lineages originated in South America, North America, Europe, and Oceania, including lineages of S. eubayanus, S. paradoxus, S. uvarum, S. jurei, and S. arboricola 14,21,24,26,27,31,[73][74][75] (Figure 4D).…”

Avaliação do potencial probiótico de leveduras do gênero saccharomyces e não-saccharomyces

“…Leveduras em geral, por demonstrarem ubiquidade (MOZZACHIODI et al, 2022), são isoladas de diversos substratos e utilizadas na produção de pães e vinhos há mais de 4000 anos (LAZO-VELEZ et al, 2018). Porém, ao tratar-se de leveduras probióticas, os primeiros relatos de isolamento se deram no início do século 20, a partir da lichia, um fruto tropical na Indochina pelo microbiologista Henri Boulard (MCFARLAND, 2010).…”

“…Desde a época de Louis Pasteur, leveduras de diversos grupos têm sido usadas como modelos de organismos para biotecnologia, biologia celular, medicina, genética e genômica (MOZZACHIODI et al, 2022). Quanto às leveduras probióticas e suas aplicações biotecnológicas, a S. cerevisiae var boulardii, é a mais explorada (STANISZEWSK et al, 2021), a qual mostra-se muito mais versátil em usos benéficos para o ser humano.…”