Diversity of secretory carbohydrases among yeasts isolated from environmental samples

Yeasts are, isolated from food resources, known as leadingproducers of fermentation products of oenologicalimportance and single cell protein. Although Yeasts fromenvironmental resources have less been studied thanthose of food origins, but the environmental isolatesdemand more attention because of their wide potentialapplications. In this study, samples were collectedfrom different manmade and natural environmentalresources and cultivated on appropriate culture media.Out of 107 numbers of isolates only 38 numbers wereable to produce one of tested carbohydrases. 35.1%of the Yeast isolates were able to degrade at least oneof the polysaccharides tested. 4% of the yeast isolateswere able to degrade two or more of polysaccharides.Production of secretory enzymes including xylanase,amylase and Cellulase was shown. None of isolates wereable to degrade chitin. The only isolate with the abilityto degrade all three polysaccharides was biochemicallyand molecularly characterized by sequencing of D1/D2 region of 26S rDNA and tentatively identified as aCryptococcus sp

Keywords:

Extracellular enzyme , amylase , xylanase , Cellulase , yeast