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.
