Yeasts in Natural Ecosystems

This book focuses on the diversity of yeasts in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, including the association of yeasts with insects, invertebrate and vertebrate animals. It offers an overview of the knowledge accumulated in the course of more than 60 years of research and is closely connected with the volume Yeasts in Natural Ecosystems: Ecology by the same editors.

This book presents an up-to-date review of the ecology of yeast communities in natural ecosystems. It focuses on their biological interactions, including mutualism, parasitism, commensalism and antagonistic interactions, and is closely connected with the volume Yeasts in Natural Ecosystems: Diversity by the same editors.

Fungi range from being microscopic, single-celled yeasts to multicellular and heterotrophic in nature. Fungal communities have been found in vast ranges of environmental conditions. They can be associated with plants epiphytically, endophytically, or rhizospherically. Extreme environments represent unique ecosystems that harbor novel biodiversity of fungal communities.

Forty years after the discovery of the helix nature of DNA and more than twenty after the first applications of recombinant DNA technology to the pharmaceutical industry, the Pandora's vase of biotechnology seems far from being empty.