Journal of Microbiology

Review

MINIREVIEW] Fungi in salterns: Dawoon Chung† , Haryun Kim† , Hyun Seok Choi; J. Microbiol. 2019;57(9):717-724. Published online August 27, 2019; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12275-019-9195-3

Abstract: Salterns are hypersaline extreme environments with unique physicochemical properties such as a salinity gradient. Although the investigation of microbiota in salterns has focused on archaea and bacteria, diverse fungi also thrive in the brine and soil of salterns. Fungi isolated from salterns are represented by black yeasts (Hortaea werneckii, Phaeotheca triangularis, Aureobasidium pullulans, and Trimmatostroma salinum), Cladosporium, Aspergillus, and Penicillium species. Most studies on saltern-derived fungi gave attention to black yeasts and their physiological characteristics, including growth under various culture conditions. Since then, biochemical and molecular tools have been employed to explore adaptation of these fungi to salt stress. Genome databases of several fungi in salterns are now publicly available and being used to elucidate salt tolerance mechanisms and discover the target genes for agricultural and industrial applications. Notably, the number of enzymes and novel metabolites known to be produced by diverse saltern-derived fungi has increased significantly. Therefore, fungi in salterns are not only interesting and important subjects to study fungal biodiversity and adaptive mechanisms in extreme environments, but also valuable bioresources with potential for biotechnological applications.

Journal Article

Note] Antifungal Chitinase against Human Pathogenic Yeasts from Coprinellus congregatus: Yeeun Yoo Hyoung T. Choi; J. Microbiol. 2014;52(5):441-443. Published online February 17, 2014; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12275-014-3257-3

Abstract: The inky cap, Coprinellus congregatus, produces mushrooms which become autolyzed rapidly to generate black liquid droplets, in which no cell wall is detected by microscopy. A chitinase (Chi2) which is synthesized during the autolytic phase of C. congregatus inhibits the growths of Candida al-bicans and Cryptococcus neoformans up to 10% at the con-centration of 10 μg/ml, about 50% at concentration of 20 μg/ml, and up to 95% at the concentration of 70 μg/ml. Upon treatment these yeast cells are observed to be severely de-formed, with the formation of large holes in the cell wall. The two yeast species show no growth inhibition at the concen-tration of 5 μg/ml, which means the minimum inhibitory concentrations for both yeast species are 10 μg/ml under these experimental conditions.

Diversity of Yeasts Associated with Natural Environments in Korea: Soon Gyu Hong , Kang Hyun Lee , Kyung Sook Bae; J. Microbiol. 2002;40(1):55-62.

Abstract: Biodiversity of yeasts in various natural environments including soils, swamps and plants was investigated. By molecular identification methods based on the partial sequences of 26S rDNA, 69 isolates were assigned to 44 taxa including 27 known species. The remaining 17 taxa could potentially form new species. All of them were classified into Ascomycota, Hymenomycetes, Urediniomycetes and Ustilaginomycetes. Ascomycetous and ustilaginomycetous yeasts were generally isolated from flower samples, and hymenomycetous and urediniomycetous yeasts were generally isolated from soil samples. Distribution of yeast groups exhibited geographical variation. Yeast biodiversity of root soil also varied according to the associated plant species.

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