Systematics of Anamorphic Yeasts

9527787落叶酵母和类酵母菌是一类具有农业、经济、生态和医学重要性的异质真菌；随着工业和医药用新有机化合物的寻找，人们对它们的兴趣正在加速。到目前为止，大约有140个属和800个物种被识别和命名，但更多的可能存在于迄今尚未被探索的环境和栖息地。与酵母研究相关的一个主要问题是它们很难识别，特别是无性型。用于分类和鉴定的表型特征(形态、生理或生化)通常表现出种内菌株的可变性，或者是环境诱导的，或者是遗传的。这一问题影响到世界各地的所有实验室，并阻碍了研究人员和学生对自然产生的酵母进行收集、研究和分类。分子生物学工具为酵母菌及其近亲的鉴定和分类提供了有用的数据和特征。特别是，核糖体基因的核苷酸序列数据可能为物种内菌株之间以及属内物种之间的相似性和密切关系提供强有力的证据。迈阿密大学的杰克·费尔博士正在研究大约22个担子菌属的酵母菌及其许多假定的同形(性)近亲，以收集有助于评估这些分类群之间的系统发育关系的DNA序列数据。特别令人感兴趣的是从海洋环境(公海、河口)中回收的形态。将新数据与传统分类特征信息相结合是这项工作的另一个目标。预计其中一个产品将是PI关于世界酵母的权威专著的更新(与USDA-Peoria的同事Kurtzman一起)。

9527787 Fell Yeasts and yeast-like organisms are a heterogeneous group of fungi of agricultural, economic, ecological, and medical importance; interest in them is accelerating as a result of the search for new organic compounds for industrial and pharmaceutical uses. About 140 genera and 800 species have thus far been recognized and named, but many more may exist in environments and habitats poorly explored thus far. One major problem associated with studies of yeasts, particularly the anamorphic (asexual) forms, is that they are difficult to identify. The phenotypic characters (morphological, physiological, or biochemical) used for classification and identification commonly show strain variability within species, either environmentally induced or genetic. This problem affects all laboratories throughout the world and has discouraged researchers and students from undertaking the collection, study, and classification of naturally occurring yeasts. Tools of molecular biology hold promise for yielding data and characters of great utility for identification and classification of yeasts and their relatives. In particular, nucleotide sequence data from nuclear ribosomal genes are likely to provide powerful evidence for similarity and close relationship among strains within a species, and between species within genera. Dr. Jack Fell at University of Miami is working on the ca. 22 genera of basidiomycetous yeasts and many of their putative teleomorphic (sexual) relatives, to collect DNA sequence data useful in assessing phylogenetic relationships among these taxa. Of special interest are forms recovered from marine environments (open ocean, estuaries). Integration of the new data with information on traditional taxonomic characters is another goal of the work. One of the products is expected to be an updating of the PI's authoritative monograph (with colleague Kurtzman at USDA-Peoria) on the yeasts of the world.