title: Occurrence of yeasts in faecal samples from Antarctic and South American seabirds.
abstract: During an expedition to the Southern Argentinean town of Ushuaia, the Antarctic Peninsula, Antarctic Islands and the Falkland Islands, we collected 94 faecal specimens from wild birds to screen for yeast within the different bird species. The yeast species were identified by morphological features and commercial characterisation kits. From 54% of the specimens, we isolated 122 strains representing 29 yeast species. Debaryomyces hansenii, Candida lambica and Candida krusei were the most frequently isolated species. We found a plethora of yeasts in birds living in proximity to humans, whereas birds living in more remote areas were colonised with a lower number of fungal species.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Microbiology, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. erja.chryssanthou@karolinska.se
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Chryssanthou
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wennberg
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bonnedahl
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Olsen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000864:Antarctic Regions; D044822:Biodiversity; D001717:Birds / Q000382:microbiology*; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D019432:Falkland Islands; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology*; D058889:Molecular Typing; D016533:Mycological Typing Techniques; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D015003:Yeasts / Q000145:classification* / Q000302:isolation & purification*
chemical_list: D004271:DNA, Fungal; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer