商品簡介
This book is an attempt in updating the knowledge by the experts that has accumulated in the last few decades on the yeasts which are eukaryotic unicellular microfungi that are widely distributed in the natural environments, and isolated from normal as well as the specialized or extreme environments like those with low water potential, low temperature, and low oxygen availability. Around 1500 species of yeasts belonging to over 100 genera have been described so far. Yeasts play an important role in food chains, and carbon, nitrogen and sulphur cycles, and Yeasts (e.g. Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Hansenula polymorpha, Pichia pastoris) are now being used to express foreign genes for producing human proteins of pharmaceutical interest. A landmark in biotechnology was reached in 1996 with the completion of the sequencing of the entire genome of S. cerevisiae. The genome sequencing of three more yeasts (Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Candida albicans and Cryptococcus neofromans) have recently been completed. Saccharomyces cerevisiae has now become a central player in the development of an entirely new approach to biological research - systems biology.The products of modern yeast biotechnologies impinge on many commercially important sectors including food, beverages, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, industrial enzymes, agriculture and environmental bioremediation. Although the vast majority of yeasts are beneficial to human life, only a few are opportunistic human pathogens. The book is aimed at bringing together the scattered information on the diversity of yeasts in the normal and extreme environments, their ecology and adaptations, taxonomy and systematics, physiology and biochemistry, molecular aspects, and biotechnological applications.
