The possible roles played by yeasts in attine ant nests are mostly unknown. Here we present our investigations on the plant polysaccharide degradation profile of 82 yeasts isolated from fungus gardens of Atta and Acromyrmex species to demonstrate that yeasts found in ant nests may play the role of making nutrients readily available throughout the garden and detoxification of compounds that may ...

Phase-contrast microscope observations of the dimorphic fungus Phialophora dermatitidis revealed that thick-walled yeasts often tended to form aggregates and then to conjugate. Fusions were also observed among hyphae derived from the thick-walled yeasts.

Yeasts colonize the subgingival biofilm, which becomes a reservoir that favors their reproduction. The purpose of the present work was to determine the prevalence of yeasts of the Candida genus in the subgingival biofilm of gingivoperiodontal disease patients, including users and non-users of dental devices, and their susceptibility to fluconazole and voriconazole. Samples of subgingival pocket...

Oropharyngeal candidiasis is the most common fungal infection among patients infected with the human immunodefi ciency virus (HIV), and is treated empirically with topical or systemic antifungals. The objective of the present study was to investigate the possible antifungal action of the hydroalcoholic extract of Curcuma zedoaria (Christm.) Roscoe, Zingiberaceae, on yeasts in this population. S...

The large and diverse group of microscopic foodborne yeasts and moulds includes several hundred species. Both yeasts and moulds cause various degrees of deterioration and decomposition of food. They can invade and grow on virtually any type of food at any time, e.g. they invade field crops such as small grains, nuts, beans, tomatoes, and apples both in the field before harvesting and during sto...

Previously we demonstrated that human neutrophils mediate potent and long-lasting fungistasis against Histoplasma capsulatum yeasts and that all of the fungistatic activity resides in the azurophil granules. In the present study, specific azurophil granule constituents with fungistatic activity were identified by incubation with H. capsulatum yeasts for 24 h and by quantifying the subsequent gr...

Soil yeasts exhibit an array of beneficial effects to plants viz., plant growth promotion, phosphate solubilization, nitrogen and sulphur oxidation, etc. Yeasts remain as poorly investigated group microorganisms that represent abundant dependable source bioactive/chemically novel compounds potential bioinoculants. Hence this study holds the key concept assessing performance soil with promoting ...

Yeasts are ubiquitous in terrestrial and aquatic microbiota, yet their ecological functionality remains relatively unexplored in comparison with other micro-organisms. This paper formulates and tests the novel hypothesis that heat produced by the sugar catabolism of yeast populations inhabiting floral nectar can increase the temperature of floral nectar and, more generally, modify the within-fl...

During a survey of insect gut micro-organisms, we consistently isolated Pichia stipitis-like yeasts (Fungi: Ascomycota, Saccharomycetes) from the wood-ingesting beetles, Odontotaenius disjunctus and Verres sternbergianus (Coleoptera: Passalidae). The yeasts were isolated from passalid beetles over a wide area, including the eastern and midwestern USA and Panama. Phylogenetic analyses of the nuc...