Yeasts from Antartic Soil: an adaptative strategy to oligotrophic conditions?

MARTORELL, MARIA M.

Base Antártica Chilena "Escudero"

Workshop; Workshop de Ciencia Antártica; 2014

INACH (Instituto Antártico Chileno) y DNA (Dirección Nacional del Antártico/Instituto Antártico Argentino)

Antarctica offers a range of extreme climatic conditions such as low temperatures, high solar radiation, low nutrient availability and constitutes one of the harshest environments Earth. Despite of that, it has been successfully colonized by ?cold-loving? fungi, who play a key role in decomposition cycles in cold ecosystems. However, yeast´s ecological role on the nutrient or organic matter recycling/mineralization remains highly fragmentary. The aim of this work was to study the yeast microbiota in samples collected on 25 de Mayo/King George Island, in the scope of their ability to degrade polyphenolic substrates such as lignin and humic substances.