South america: An invaluable source of yeast biodiversity lacking an especialized culture collection.

LIBKIND FRATI, D

FLorianopolis

Conferencia; 12th International Conference on Culture Collections (ICCC12); 2010

South America possesses the largest biodiversity of the entire planet with approximately 40% of total global diversity. Yet, our knowledge of the biodiversity of many areas is scarce and this fact becomes even more significant when referring to microbial diversity. For many years microbial studies in South America were done by foreign researches given the absence of local specialized human resources and infrastructure, and consequently native microorganisms were studied and preserved abroad. Today, local scientific development has lead to a change in this respect. However, regarding yeast biodiversity, changes occur more slowly than other microbiology disciplines. Currently, only a few South-American laboratories have focused on native yeasts and so far local specialized yeasts culture collections are lacking. As a result, local microbiologists must send strains to foreign culture collections for preservation and/or for the description of new species. Despite such limitations, recent research in South America has shown the existence of an exceptional yeast diversity and in some cases even with large biotechnological potentialities. Scientific cooperation between South-American laboratories focusing in yeasts has been probably one of the most significant goals achieved in the last years, and will surely boost local yeast research in future years. Our studies in Patagonia focus mostly on basidiomycetous yeasts, and will be addressed in this presentation as an example of the importance of the bioprospection of South-American micoflora, particularly, in unexplored habitats. Such investigations also contributed to yeast taxonomy and systematics. So far, 12 novel yeast species have been described and more than 20 additional species are in progress. These, together with genetically unique strains of known taxa (e.g. Phaffia and Saccharomyces), have been isolated from Patagonian natural environments and have shown potential for the production of compounds relevant to the biotechnology industry such as carotenoid pigments, essential lipids, psicroenzimes and mycosporines (UV sunscreens).