Biomedical subjects

M A Lachance

Publications and source records attributed to M A Lachance.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1999

Kodamaea nitidulidarum, Candida restingae and Kodamaea anthophila, three new related yeast species from ephemeral flowers.

Three new yeast species were discovered during studies of yeasts associated with ephemeral flowers in Brazil, Australia and Hawaii. Their physiological and morphological similarity to Kodamaea (Pichia) ohmeri suggested a possible relationship to that species, which was confirmed by rDNA sequencing. Kodamaea nitidulidarum and Candida restingae were found in cactus flowers and associated nitidulid beetles in sand dune ecosystems (restinga) of South-eastern Brazil. Over 350 strains of Kodamaea anthophila were isolated from Hibiscus and morning glory flowers (Ipomoea spp.) in Australia, and from associated nitidulid beetles and Drosophila hibisci. A single isolate came from a beach morning glory in Hawaii. Expansion of the genus Kodamaea to three species modified the existing definition of the genus only slightly. The type and isotype strains are as follows: K. nitidulidarum strains UFMG96-272T (h+; CBS 8491T) and UFMG96-394I (h-; CBS 8492I); Candida restingae UFMG96-276T (CBS 8493T); K. anthophila strains UWO(PS)95-602.1T (h+; CBS 8494T), UWO(PS)91-893.2I (h-; CBS 8495I) and UWO(PS)95-725.1I (h-; CBS 8496I).

Base Sequence↗

PubMed1999

Kodamaea kakaduensis and Candida tolerans, two new ascomycetous yeast species from Australian Hibiscus flowers.

Two new yeast species were isolated from flowers of Hibiscus species in Eastern and Northern Australia. Kodamaea kakaduensis is heterothallic, haploid, and similar to other Kodamaea species and to Candida restingae. Buds are often produced on short protuberances, and a true mycelium is formed. The new species differs from others by the assimilation of trehalose, melezitose, and xylitol, and is reproductively isolated. The cells of Candida tolerans are small and a pseudomycelium is formed. The carbon and nitrogen assimilation pattern is reminiscent of that of Zygosaccharomyces rouxii but the two are not closely related. Sequences of the D1/D2 domain of large subunit ribosomal DNA confirm the membership of K. kakaduensis in the genus Kodamaea and indicate that C. tolerans belongs to the Clavispora-Metschnikowia clade, with a moderate relatedness to Candida mogii. The type strains are: K. kakaduensis, UWO(PS)98-119.2 (h+, holotype, CBS 8611) and UWO(PS)98-117.1 (h-, isotype, CBS 8612); and C. tolerans, UWO(PS)98-115.5 (CBS 8613).

Ascomycota↗

PubMed1998

The yeast genus Starmerella gen. nov. and Starmerella bombicola sp. nov., the teleomorph of Candida bombicola (Spencer, Gorin & Tullock) Meyer & Yarrow.

Seven strains of a heterothallic haploid yeast species were isolated from flowers of Calystegia sepium (hedge bindweed, Convolvulaceae) and associated sap beetles of the genus Conotelus. Conjugation was observed between some of the isolates and the type strain of Candida bombicola, resulting in evanescent asci with one ascospore with a convoluted surface. The sequences of the D1/D2 variable domain of the large subunit of the rDNAs of three strains differed by only one or two bases from that of the type strain. The new genus Starmerella, with the single species Starmerella bombicola, is proposed to accommodate the teleomorph of C. bombicola. The designated isotype is strain UWO(PS)97-118I (H-; CBS 8451I).

Animals↗

PubMed1998

Wickerhamiella australiensis, Wickerhamiella cacticola, Wickerhamiella occidentalis, Candida drosophilae and Candida lipophila, five new related yeast species from flowers and associated insects.

Five new yeast species, Wickerhamiella australiensis, Wickerhamiella cacticola, Wickerhamiella occidentalis, Candida drosophilae and Candida lipophila, are described to accommodate isolates recovered from flowers and floricolous insects of Australian Hibiscus trees, cosmopolitan morning glories (Ipomoea spp.) and Brazilian cereoid cacti. The new Wickerhamiella species are heterothallic, occur in the haploid condition and are clearly separated reproductively from one another. Although they exhibit little physiological variation, they are easily delineated from Wickerhamiella domercqiae, the only species known previously, by their resistance to cycloheximide and the production of strong extracellular lipases. C. drosophilae and C. lipophila share the latter property, but unlike the Wickerhamiella species, they fail to utilize nitrate as sole nitrogen source. PFGE indicates that these yeasts have an unusually low number of chromosomes. The large-subunit rDNA (D1/D2) sequences demonstrate a close relationship between the five species and Candida vanderwaltii and Candida azyma. Their relationship with W. domercqiae is more distant, but all share, with some other Candida species, a single monophyletic clade. The type and isotype strains are as follows: W. australiensis strains UWO(PS)95-604.3T (h+; CBS 8456T) and UWO(PS)95-631.3I (h-; CBS 8457I); W. cacticola strains UFMG96-267T (h+; CBS 8454T) and UFMG96-381I (h-; CBS 8455I); W. occidentalis strains UWO(PS)91-698.4T (h+; CBS 8452T) and UFMG96-212I (h-; CBS 8453I); C. drosophilae UWO(PS)91-716.3T (CBS 8459T); and C. lipophila UWO(PS)91-681.3T (CBS 8458T).

Animals↗

PubMed1998

Candida ipomoeae, a new yeast species related to large-spored Metschnikowia species.

Numerous strains of an unusual asexual yeast species were isolated from flowers of morning glory (Ipomoea spp., Convolvulaceae) and associated drosophilids and sap beetles of the genus Conotelus sampled in Hawaii and in Brazil. The nutritional profile of this yeast is similar to those of Metschnikowia hawaiiensis and Metschnikowia continentalis, which share the same habitats. The cells are large, hydrophobic, and tend to remain attached after budding, causing the colonies on agar media to have a convoluted appearance, reminiscent of popcorn. The sequences of the D1/D2 domain of large subunit rDNAs of strains from three different localities confirmed that a single species is involved, and that it is related to large-spored Metschnikowia species. The type strain is UWO(PS)91-672.1 (CBS 8466).

Base Sequence↗

PubMed1997

Predacious yeasts.

Haustorium-mediated predation was observed in seven yeast species. Arthroascus javanensis, Botryoascus synnaedendrus, Guilliermondella selenospora, Saccharomycopsis fibuligera, and three hitherto unknown species penetrate and kill other yeasts. These yeasts share an unusual requirement for organic sulphur. One isolate recovered from Australian Hibiscus was studied in detail and found to attack a broad range of prey species, including ascomycetous and basidiomycetous yeasts as well as moulds. Predation was most effective when growth was on a solid surface and the medium was poor in complex nutrients. Organic sulphur (exemplified by methionine) was identified as a key factor. It serves as a nutritional benefit to the predator and, depending on the concentration, acts as either an inhibitor of predation or possibly a signal for detection of prey. Sampling of a yeast habitat with a medium selective for selenium-resistant yeasts indicated that auxotrophic and predacious yeasts might be more widespread than anticipated.

Antibiosis↗

PubMed1995

Yeast communities in a natural tequila fermentation.

Fresh and cooked agave, Drosophila spp., processing equipment, agave molasses, agave extract, and fermenting must at a traditional tequila distillery (Herradura, Amatitan, Jalisco, México) were studied to gain insight on the origin of yeasts involved in a natural tequila fermentations. Five yeast communities were identified. (1) Fresh agave contained a diverse mycobiota dominated by Clavispora lusitaniae and an endemic species, Metschnikowia agaveae. (2) Drosophila spp. from around or inside the distillery yielded typical fruit yeasts, in particular Hanseniaspora spp., Pichia kluyveri, and Candida krusei. (3) Schizosaccharomyces pombe prevailed in molasses. (4) Cooked agave and extract had a considerable diversity of species, but included Saccharomyces cerevisiae. (5) Fermenting juice underwent a gradual reduction in yeast heterogeneity. Torulaspora delbrueckii, Kluyveromyces marxianus, and Hanseniaspora spp. progressively ceded the way to S. cerevisiae, Zygosaccharomyces bailii, Candida milleri, and Brettanomyces spp. With the exception of Pichia membranaefaciens, which was shared by all communities, little overlap existed. That separation was even more manifest when species were divided into distinguishable biotypes based on morphology or physiology. It is concluded that crushing equipment and must holding tanks are the main source of significant inoculum for the fermentation process. Drosophila species appear to serve as internal vectors. Proximity to fruit trees probably contributes to maintaining a substantial Drosophila community, but the yeasts found in the distillery exhibit very little similarity to those found in adjacent vegetation. Interactions involving killer toxins had no apparent direct effects on the yeast community structure.

Alcoholic Beverages↗

PubMed1995

Yeast communities associated with Drosophila species and related flies in an eastern oak-pine forest: a comparison with western communities.

Intestinal yeast mycobiota were studied in 14 species of Drosophila and in the drosophilid species Chymomyza amoena, captured at Pinery Provincial Park, Ontario. Over 56 yeast species, some undescribed, were isolated. These yeast communities were compared with those from two similar surveys conducted in western portions of North America. The community structures were influenced significantly by the habitat rather than phylogeny of the flies. Geographic separation was a factor affecting yeast taxa frequencies in the fly species, but it was largely overshadowed by ecological factors when the communities were described physiologically. The notion that habitats are filled by yeasts which add up to a suitable physiological potential, more or less independently of their taxonomic affinities, was thus confirmed.

Animals↗

PubMed1994

Mating in the heterothallic haploid yeast Clavispora opuntiae, with special reference to mating type imbalances in local populations.

Mating was studied in the haploid, heterothallic yeast Clavispora opuntiae to assess the importance of nutritional, genetic, and other factors that may favour mating and recombination. Local populations of this yeast generally exhibit dramatic inequalities in mating type distributions, suggesting that mating is rare in nature even though most isolates mate freely in the laboratory. The absence of assimilable nitrogen is prerequisite to mating competence, presumably by causing G1 arrest. Maximum mating competence is found in cells entering stationary phase in nitrogen-limited media. Unlike the vast majority of mating yeasts, C. opuntiae does not appear to produce diffusible mating factors (sex pheromones), and mating-competent cells do not undergo sexual agglutination. Pairwise cell contact appears to be the only signal that triggers the sexual process in this case. In order to determine if mating type imbalances in nature are caused by reduced fertility of 'consanguine' crosses, meiotic recombination was measured in pairs of strains that varied in their genetic distances as indicated by restriction mapping. That hypothesis was rejected, as recombination efficiency decreased with increasing genetic distance. We conclude that the rarity of mating in local populations is exacerbated by the stringent physical (pairwise cell contact) and nutritional (nitrogen depletion) conditions that will allow mating to proceed. Parallels are drawn with mating patterns observed in Clavispora lusitaniae.

Crosses, Genetic↗

PubMed1994

Candida caseinolytica sp. nov., a new species of yeast occurring in necrotic tissue of Opuntia and Stenocereus species in the southwestern United States and Baja California, Mexico.

We describe Candida caseinolytica, a new yeast species which occurs in rotting tissues of opuntias and other cacti in the North American Sonoran Desert and a few other localities. This small-celled, slowly growing yeast does not ferment any sugar and assimilates a limited number of carbon compounds, including 2- and 5-ketogluconic acids. It exhibits strong extracellular proteolytic activity on casein at pH 6.5, but gelatin is not hydrolyzed or is only weakly hydrolyzed by a few strains. The type strain of C. caseinolytica is strain UCD-FST 83-438.3 (= ATCC 90546 = CBS 7781).

Candida↗

PubMed1993

Phylogenetic study of ribosomal DNA of cactophilic Pichia species by restriction mapping.

The rDNAs of strains of the cactophilic Pichia species P. amethionina, P. antillensis, P. barkeri, P. cactophila, P. caribaea, P. deserticola, P. heedii, P. kluyveri, P. norvegenesis, P. opuntiae, P. pseudocactophila, P. thermotolerans and their varieties and anamorphs were mapped with 15 restriction endonucleases, and compared to P. membranaefaciens and P. salictaria as possible non-cactophilic relatives. The existence of species complexes among those taxa was confirmed. P. membranaefaciens was a plausible ancestral species, and its closest relative in the cactophilic group was P. deserticola. These two species appeared to be moderately related to P. heedii and to P. barkeri, but the latter was shown clearly to belong to the P. kluyveri complex, in spite of a 6 mol% G+C difference in their nuclear DNAs. P. cactophila and P. pseudocactophila ostensibly emerged from P. norvegensis, a facultatively cactophilic yeast. The P. amethionina, P. cactophila and P. opuntiae species complexes appeared independent from one another and from all other species studied. P. salictaria did not appear to be related to P. amethionina.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed1993

Kluyveromyces: systematics since 1970.

The taxonomy of Kluyveromyces has been the object of intense study since van der Walt's (1970) monograph. This is an account of the major developments and the classification to be adopted in the 4th edition of The Yeasts, a Taxonomic Study. The guiding principles that will be followed in eventual revisions of the genus are presented.

DNA, Fungal↗

PubMed1990

Metschnikowia hawaiiensis sp. nov., a heterothallic haploid yeast from Hawaiian morning glory and associated drosophilids.

A new haploid, heterothallic yeast species was isolated repeatedly from morning glory (Ipomoea acuminata) flowers and from two associated drosophilid species, Scaptomyza calliginosa and Drosophila floricola, in a Hawaiian kipuka. Haploid strains of this organism multiply asexually by budding and, under nutrient deprivation, by the formation of long germ tubes that develop into branching true mycelia. Mating compatibility is controlled by two alleles of a single locus. Plasmogamy between compatible strains is followed by the development of very large elongate asci bearing vestiges of the zygotes and the formation in each ascus of two unusually large aciculate ascospores similar to those formed by members of the genus Metschnikowia. Membership in the genus Metschnikowia is supported by the physiological profile of the yeast, which is typical of the genus but not identical to the profile of any previously described species. The name Metschnikowia hawaiiensis is proposed to emphasize the geographic origin of the new species, not its habitat, which has not been determined precisely. The holotype strain of M. hawaiiensis is strain UWO(PS) 87-2167.2 (= ATCC 76059 = CBS 7432), and the isotype strain is strain UWO(PS) 87-2203.2 (= ATCC 76058 = CBS 7433).

Animals↗

PubMed1989

Restriction mapping of rDNA and the taxonomy of Kluyveromyces van der Walt emend. van der Walt.

Ribosomal DNA from the type strains of 13 nomenspecies of Kluyveromyces and from other strains were mapped with 11 restriction endonucleases. The length of the repeating unit ranged from ca. 8.4 kb (in K. aestuarii) to ca. 10.9 kb (in K. phaffii). The length variation resided as expected in the nontranscribed spacer. The patterns confirmed some of the inferences articulated by various students of the genus. The closely related species K. marxianus and K. lactis constituted a core to which could be linked first K. wickerhamii and K. dobzhanskii and then K. aestuarii. The presumed relatedness between K. waltii and K. thermotolerans was endorsed by rDNA mapping as well, but evidence linking these two species to the rest of the genus is wanting. The restriction patterns suggest that the multispored species together with K. delphensis form a loose assemblage acting as a bridge between the "core" species and the species K. phaffii and K. lodderi.

DNA, Fungal↗

PubMed1987

The use of N,N,N',N'-tetramethylphenylenediamine to detect peroxidase activity on polyacrylamide electrophoresis gels.

N,N,N',N'-Tetramethylphenylenediamine (TMPD) acts as an effective indicator of peroxidase activity on polyacrylamide electrophoresis gels. The test is easy to perform, rapid, sensitive, and reliable. The procedure produces vivid bright blue bands (Wursters blue) on a clear background. TMPD and Wursters blue did not interfere with a number of other electrophoresis stains subsequently applied. These included total protein staining with Coomassie blue, and a number of pigment producing electrophoresis stains used to investigate melanogenesis-related enzymes in the black yeast Phaeococcomyces sp.

Chromogenic Compounds↗

PubMed1987

The ecological role of killer yeasts in natural communities of yeasts.

The killer phenomenon of yeasts was investigated in naturally occurring yeast communities. Yeast species from communities associated with the decaying stems and fruits of cactus and the slime fluxes of trees were studied for production of killer toxins and sensitivity to killer toxins produced by other yeasts. Yeasts found in decaying fruits showed the highest incidence of killing activity (30/112), while yeasts isolated from cactus necroses and tree fluxes showed lower activity (70/699 and 11/140, respectively). Cross-reaction studies indicated that few killer-sensitive interactions occur within the same habitat at a particular time and locality, but that killer-sensitive reactions occur more frequently among yeasts from different localities and habitats. The conditions that should be optimal for killer activity were found in fruits and young rots of Opuntia cladodes where the pH is low. The fruit habitat appears to favor the establishment of killer species. Killer toxin may affect the natural distribution of the killer yeast Pichia kluyveri and the sensitive yeast Cryptococcus cereanus. Their distributions indicate that the toxin produced by P. kluyveri limits the occurrence of Cr. cereanus in fruit and Opuntia pads. In general most communities have only one killer species. Sensitive strains are more widespread than killer strains and few species appear to be immune to all toxins. Genetic study of the killer yeast P. kluyveri indicates that the mode of inheritance of killer toxin production is nuclear and not cytoplasmic as is found in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Kluyveromyces lactis.

Arizona↗

PubMed1985

Current views on the yeast species.

The application of the biological species concept to the delineation of yeast species is becoming a reality. Studies centred on heterothallic Pichia and related species, and on homothallic species of Kluyveromyces have facilitated a better understanding of the concept of 'yeast species'.

Animals↗

PubMed1981

Hanseniaspora nodinigri, a new yeast species found in black knots (Dibotryon morbosum) of Prunus virginiana.

The new yeast species Hanseniaspora nodinigri is described to accommodate members of the genus Hanseniaspora that are unable to assimilate glucono-sigma-lactone and isolated from stromatal tissue of black knots (Dobotryon morbosum) of chokecherry, Prunus virginiana. The newly described taxon shows much resemblance, by other criteria, to H. vineae van der Walt et Tscheuschner and H. osmophila (Niehaus) Phaff, Miller et Shifrine.

Ascomycota↗