Differential selection on gene translation efficiency between the filamentous fungus Ashbya gossypii and yeasts

Background: The filamentous fungus Ashbya gossypii grows into a multicellular mycelium that is distinct from the unicellular morphology of its closely related yeast species. It has been proposed that genes important for cell cycle regulation play central

一株掷孢酵母利用红薯淀粉酶解液积累油脂研究

本论文以红薯淀粉的双酶法水解液为碳源，从19 株红色酵母中筛选出一株油脂含量较高的菌株掷孢酵母（Sporobolomyces reseus）As.2.618。为了提高掷孢酵母（S.reseus）As.2.618 的油脂产量，考察了培养基组成对该菌生长情况及油脂积累的影响。用均匀设计法对培养基组成进行了优化，由DPS软件得出的优化结果为：还原糖103g/L、酵母粉11.5g/L、磷酸二氢钾0.3g/L、硫酸镁0.15g/L。生物量可达19.23 g/L,油脂含量为3.875 g/L。研究了添加二价离子对该菌的生长及油脂积累的影响,结果表明Zn2+对该菌生长和油脂积累都有显著促进作用。研究了发酵条件以及添加氧载体正十二烷对该菌发酵的影响，表明添加正十二烷有利用于该菌生长与油脂积累。得出最佳发酵条件是：在还原糖103g/L、酵母粉11.5g/L、磷酸二氢钾0.3g/L、硫酸镁0.15g/L。添加30mg/L 硫酸锌,接种量为5％，在24h 后添加2g/L 的碳酸钙和2%(v/v)正十二烷，pH6.0 培养温度为27℃，转速为200r/min，培养时间为7 天的条件下，该菌生物量干重可达35.05g/L,油脂含量也达11.98g/L。Lipid is one of the basic material for life-sustaining activities andimportant industrial materials. As lipid resources mainly come from the animal andthe plant, the problem of lipid lack is encountered at times. The lipid frommicroorganisms is the substitute and superior to the above lipid with a short period ofproduction and much cheaper fermentation materials such as agricultural and sidelineproducts or wastes of crop.Thus large scale production and broad application ofmicrobial lipid will be efficient not only in substitute of the animal and the plant lipidfor food and industrial field , but also inducing a new way leading to solve the energyproblem.For the purpose of exploring the characteristics of lipid production of redyeasts from sweet potato starch hydrolysates. 19 red yeasts are screened for thecapability of lipid producing and one strain Sporobolomyces reseus As.2.618 withsuperior performance is sellected.To improve the Sporobolomyces reseus As.2.618’s capability of lipidaccumulation , the components of the medium, which may influence the growth of thestrain and the lipid yield have been studied. To get the optimum mediumcomponents ,the “uniform design” was used .The DPS software gave the optimummedium component is: reducing sugar 103 g/L、yeast extract 11.5 g/L、KH2PO4 0.3g/L、MgSO4 0.15 g/L. The biomass could reach up to 19.23 g/L and lipid yield 3.87g/L with the above composition of fermentation medium.Furthermore the fermentation conditions , addition of the divalent metal ionsand the oxygen vector to increase the strain’s lipid producing capability are tested.The optimum condition is : reducing sugar 103 g/L、yeast extract 11.5 g/L、KH2PO40.3 g/L、MgSO4 0.15 g/L，Adding 30mg/L ZnSO4,and adding 2g/L CaCO3 2％(v/v)n-dodecane after 24h’s fermentation. the optimal fermentation condition were asfollow :30ml medium in the 500ml flask with initial pH 6.0,the flasks with 5%inoculation volume were at 200r/min shaking speed for 7d’s fermentation at27 .Under this kind of condition the high biom ¡æ ass which reach to 35.05 g/L could begot ,the yield of lipid also could reach to 11.98g/L.

A quick isolation method for mutants with high lipid yield in oleaginous yeast

A novel method has been developed to easily isolate the mutants with high lipid yield after irradiating oleaginous yeast cells with carbon ions of energy of 80 MeV/u. Pre-selection of the mutants after ion irradiation was performed with culture medium in which the concentration of cerulenin, a potent inhibitor of fatty acid synthetase, was at 8.96 mu mol/l. Afterwards, lipid concentration in the fermentation broth of the pre-selected colonies was estimated by the sulfo-phospho-vanillin reaction instead of the conventional methanol-chloroform extraction. Two mutants with high lipid yield have been successfully selected out by the combined method. This easy and simple method is much less time-consuming but very efficient in the mutant isolation, and it has demonstrated great potential on mutation breeding in oleaginous microorganism.

Development of selective media for the isolation of yeasts and filamentous fungi from the sputum of adult patients with cystic fibrosis (CF)

Yeasts and filamentous fungi are beginning to emerge as significant microbial pathogens in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF), particularly in relation to allergic-type responses, as seen in patients with allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA), Aspergillus bronchitis and in invasive fungal disease in lung transplant patients. Four fungal media were compared in this study, including Sabouraud Dextrose Agar (SDA) and Medium B, with and without the addition of selective antibiotics, where antibiotic-supplemented media were designated with (+). These media were compared for their ability to suppress contaminating, mainly Gram-ve pathogens, in CF sputa (Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Burkholderia cepacia complex [BCC] organisms) and to enhance the growth of fungi present in CF sputum. Medium B consisted of glucose (16.7 g/l), agar (20 g/l), yeast extract (30 g/l) and peptone (6.8 g/l) at pH 6.3 and both SDA(+) and Medium B+ were supplemented with cotrimethoxazole, 128 mg/l; chloramphenicol, 50 mg/l; ceftazidime, 32 mg/l; colistin, 24 mg/l). Employment of SDA(+) or Medium B+ allowed an increase in specificity in the detection of yeasts and moulds, by 42.8% and 39.3%, respectively, over SDA when used solely. SDA(+) had a greater ability than Medium B+ to suppress bacterial growth from predominantly Gram-ve co-colonisers. This is a significant benefit when attempting to detect and isolate fungi from the sputum of CF patients, as it largely suppressed any bacterial growth, with the exception of the BCC organisms, thus allowing for an increased opportunity to detect target fungal organisms in sputum and represented a significant improvement over the commercial medium (SDA), which is currently used. Overall, both novel selective media were superior in their ability to suppress bacteria in comparison with the commercially available SDA medium, which is routinely employed in most clinical microbiology diagnostic laboratories presently. Alternatively, Medium B+ had a great ability to grow fungi than SDA(+) and when employed together, the specificity of combined use was 82%, with a sensitivity for yeasts, filamentous fungi, and combined overall fungi of 96.0%, 92.3% and 96.0%, respectively. Overall, when employing one fungal selective medium for the routine detection of yeasts and filamentous fungi in the sputum of CF patients, we would recommend employment of Medium B+. However, we would recommend the combined employment of SDA(+) and Medium B+, in order to synergistically isolate and detect the greatest number of fungi present in CF sputa. (C) 2008 European Cystic Fibrosis Society. Published by Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.

Problems in the use of benzoic acid for estimating the internal pH of yeasts

Some yeasts have the peculiar ability to grow in the presence of weak acids at rather low pH. These conditions are predominant in preserved foods and beverages such as fruit concentrates, juices, wine, where these yeasts are responsible for spoilage. The main preservatives currently utilized by food industries are sorbic, propionic, benzoic acids and SO2. It is usually assumed that weak acids diffuse through the plasma membrane in the undissociated form. In the cytoplasm, where the pH is higher, dissociation occurs resulting in accumulation of the lipid-insoluble anion and internal acidification. This is probably a very general mechanism of preventing microbial growth in foods.

Functional differentiation of tbf1 orthologues in fission and budding yeasts.

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, TBF1, an essential gene, influences telomere function but also has other roles in the global regulation of transcription. We have identified a new member of the tbf1 gene family in the mammalian pathogen Pneumocystis carinii. We demonstrate by transspecies complementation that its ectopic expression can provide the essential functions of Schizosaccharomyces pombe tbf1 but that there is no rescue between fission and budding yeast orthologues. Our findings indicate that an essential function of this family of proteins has diverged in the budding and fission yeasts and suggest that effects on telomere length or structure are not the primary cause of inviability in S. pombe tbf1 null strains.

Marine Yeasts from the Slope Sediments of Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal

The present study provides an account of the occurrence and diversity of marine yeasts in the slope sediments of Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal. It also gives a clear idea about the role of yeasts in the benthic realm of marine ecosystem. The lipolytic potential of the organisms indicate the presence of rich lipid moieties in the study area. The isolates, Candida sp. SD 302 and Pichia guilliermondii SD 337 were proved to have potential oil degrading property and can be employed as bioremediators of oil spill after further characterization. The black yeasts isolated during the study area were found to have high commercial value by virtue of the by-products obtained from them. The melanin and the melanin degrading enzyme extracted from these organisms are potential bioactive materials for application in cosmetology.

Marine yeasts — a review

Yeasts are ubiquitous in their distribution and populations mainly depend on the type and concentration of organic materials. The distribution of species, as well as their numbers and metabolic characteristics were found to be governed by existing environmental conditions. Marine yeasts were first discovered from the Atlantic Ocean and following this discovery, yeasts were isolated from different sources, viz. seawater, marine deposits, seaweeds, fish, marine mammals and sea birds. Nearshore environments are usually inhabited by tens to thousands of cells per litre of water, whereas low organic surface to deep-sea oceanic regions contain 10 or fewer cells/litre. Aerobic forms are found more in clean waters and fermentative forms in polluted waters. Yeasts are more abundant in silty muds than in sandy sediments. The isolation frequency of yeasts fell as the depth of the sampling site is increased. Major genera isolated in this study were Candida, Cryptococcus, Debaryomyces and Rhodotorula. For biomass estimation ergosterol method was used. Classification and identification of yeasts were performed using different criteria, i.e. morphology, sexual reproduction and physiological/biochemical characteristics. Fatty acid profiling or molecular sequencing of the IGS and ITS regions and 28S gene rDNA ensured accurate identification.

Marine yeasts as source of single cell protein and immunostimulant for application in penaeid prawn culture systems

The study revealed the potential of marine yeasts as a source of single cell protein and immunostimulant for prawns. Prawns fed with the selected marine yeasts were showing more growth compared to the control feed and commercial feed. Yeasts being rich with proteins, vitamins and carbohydrates serve as a growth promoter for prawns as being evidenced in this study. The better performance of marine yeasts, D. hansenii S8 and S100 and C. tropicalis S186 compared to S. cerevisiae S36 as a feed supplement is worth investigating. Besides being a rich nutritional source, yeasts act as immunostimulants by virtue of its high carbohydrate (Beta, 1-3 glucan) and RNA content. Beta, 1-3 glucan, a cell wall component of yeasts /fungi is the most commonly used immunostimulant in aquaculture. The present study shows that even the whole cell yeast could serve as a good immunostimulant when supplied through diet. Extraction of Beta-1,3 glucan results in the removal of nutrients like proteins, vitamins etc. from the cell biomass.Utilization of the yeast biomass as such in the diet would help perform a dual role as nutritional component and immunostimulant for aquaculture applications.

Studies on fungal flora with special reference to Yeasts in the Cochin backwaters

Man's concern with environmental deterioration is one of the major reasons for the increased interest in marine and estuarine microbes. Microbes form an important link in the biogeochemical cycling and their cyclinq activites often determine to a large measure the potential productivity of an ecosystem In the recycling of the nutrients in the estuary, bacteria and fungi therefore play a particularly significant role.The allochthonous plant materials contain biopolymers such as cellulose, lignin, humus etc., that are difficult to degrade into simpler substances. The fungi have the ability to degrade _substances, thereby making them available for cycling within the system. The present study is devoted to find the composition and the activity of myco populations of Cochin backwater. For convenience the thesis is divided into eight chapters. The opening chapter briefly reviews the literature and projects the importance of work and the main objectives. Second chapter discusses the materials and methods. In the third chapter the systematic and taxonomy of estuarine yeasts are examined in detail since this information is scarcely available for our waters. The general ecological aspects of the yeasts and filamentous fungi in the area of study are examined in the fourth chapter using appropriate statistical techniques. A special reference to the fungi in a small mangrove ecosystem is attempted in the fifth chapter. The biochemical studies are discussed in the sixth chapter and the penultimate chapter provides an overall discussion. In the last chapter the summary of the work is presented.