A total of 1752 strains of osrnophilic yeasts were isolated from honey and po]]ens. Fody-three strains Gf esmophilic yeasts produced po]yols, among whieh 6 strains produced erythritol in good yields. On the other hand, 52 osmophilic yeasts converted sucrose te fin]etooligosaccharides, among which 8 strains produced both extra and intracel]ular P-fructofuranosidase, which conyerted sucrose to fr...

The conversion of grape must into wine involves the development and succession of yeast populations differing in species composition. The initial population is formed by vineyard strains which are washed into the must from the crushed grapes and then completed with yeasts coming from the cellar environment. As the origin and natural habitat of the vineyard yeasts are not fully understood, this ...

Yeasts are generally considered to be unable to ferment starch. This lack of diastatic activity is the reason for the use, in fermentation industries, of barleymalt and fungal diastase preparations for the conversion of starchy substrates to sugars which may be attacked by the yeasts. If there should exist in nature yeasts which possess active amylase systems, they might be of much scientific a...

Yeast volatiles attract insects, which apparently is of mutual benefit, for both yeasts and insects. However, it is unknown whether biosynthesis of metabolites that attract insects is a basic and general trait, or if it is specific for yeasts that live in close association with insects. Our goal was to study chemical insect attractants produced by yeasts that span more than 250 million years of...

The yeast Williopsis mrakii produces a mycocin or yeast killer toxin designated HMK; this toxin exhibits high thermal stability, high pH stability, and a broad spectrum of activity against other yeasts. We describe construction of a synthetic gene for mycocin HMK and heterologous expression of this toxin in Aspergillus niger. Mycocin HMK was fused to a glucoamylase protein carrier, which result...

The gut of wood-feeding insects is a microhabitat for a specialized community of microbes, including bacteria and several groups of eukaryotes such as nematodes, parabasalids and fungi. The characterization of gut yeast communities from a variety of insects has shown that certain yeasts often are associated with the insects. The gut of wood-feeding insects is rich in ascomycete yeasts and in pa...

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is by far the most widely used yeast in oenology. However, during the last decade, several other yeasts species has been purposed for winemaking as they could positively impact wine quality. Some of these non-conventional yeasts (Torulaspora delbrueckii, Metschnikowia pulcherrima, Pichia kluyveri, Lachancea thermotolerans, etc.) are now proposed as starters culture for ...

AIMS We investigated the spectrum of yeasts isolated, and compared the epidemiological and laboratory characteristics of women carrying vulvovaginal Candida albicans with those carrying yeasts other than C. albicans. METHOD Between April and June 2001, 5802 consecutively received genital swabs from women were plated onto Candida ID chromogenic media (BioMerieux). Blue colonies were reported a...

The fermentation of grape must to produce wine is a biologically complex process, carried on by yeasts and malolactic bacteria. The yeasts present in spontaneous fermentation may be divided into two groups, the Saccharomyces yeasts, particularly S. cerevisiae, and the non-Saccharomyces yeasts which include members of the genera Rhodotorula, Pichia, Candida, Debaryomyces, Metschtnikowia, Hansenu...

Floral nectars become easily colonized by microbes, most often species of the ascomycetous yeast genus Metschnikowia. Although it is known that nectar composition can vary tremendously among plant species, most probably corresponding to the nutritional requirements of their main pollinators, far less is known about how variation in nectar chemistry affects intraspecific variation in nectarivoro...