title: General evidence supporting the hypothesis that Saccharomyces cerevisiae vaginal isolates originate from food industrial environments.
abstract: Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains isolated from pregnant women were identified and characterized by molecular techniques which disclosed a wide chromosomal variability and possible segregations due to sporulation. The morphological analysis showed that very few strains were able to sporulate and generate pseudohyphae, whereas none produced proteases, raising some doubts on the importance of these characters in strain pathogenicity. The analysis of ethanol production revealed that these strains are quite similar to those found in fermentative plants, suggesting a possible derivation from the food industrial environment. Since the absence of relevant amounts of sugar does not confer selective advantage to strong fermentative metabolisms, these findings suggest that a metabolic adaptation to the vaginal environment did not occur yet.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia Vegetale e Biotecnologie Agroambientali e Zootecniche, Sezione Microbiologia Agroalimentare e Ambientale, Università degli Studi di Perugia, Italy.
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Siccardi
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rellini
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Corte
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bistoni
authors.forename: Fabrizio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fatichenti
authors.forename: Gianluigi
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cardinali
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000431:Ethanol / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D005285:Fermentation; D019649:Food Industry; D005516:Food Microbiology; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D011247:Pregnancy; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D014621:Vagina / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D000431:Ethanol