The halotolerant Debaryomyces hansenii, the Cinderella of non-conventional yeasts.
Debaryomyces hansenii is a halotolerant yeast with a high biotechnological potential, particularly in the food industry. However, research in this yeast is limited by its molecular peculiarities. In this review we summarize the state of the art of research in this microorganisms, describing both pros and cons. We discuss (i) its halotolerance, (ii) the molecular factors involved in saline and osmotic stress, (iii) its high gene density and ambiguous CUG decoding, and (iv) its biotechnological and medical interests. We trust that all the bottlenecks in its study will soon be overcome and D. hansenii will become a fundamental organism for food biotechnological processes. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
LEAF - Research Centre Linking Landscape, Environment, Agriculture and Food, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, 1649-003, Portugal.
Catarina
C
Prista
Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular, Campus de Rabanales, Universidad de Córdoba, 14071, Córdoba, Spain.
Carmen
C
Michán
Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.|CINTESIS - Centre for Health Technology and Services Research, Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto, Portugal.
Isabel M
IM
Miranda
Departamento de Microbiología, Campus de Rabanales, Universidad de Córdoba, 14071, Córdoba, Spain. mi1raruj@uco.es.
José
J
Ramos
D001709:Biotechnology / Q000639:trends; D002412:Cations / Q000378:metabolism; D055165:Debaryomyces / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D005524:Food Technology / Q000639:trends*; D016681:Genome, Fungal / Q000235:genetics; D006219:Halogens / Q000378:metabolism; D009997:Osmotic Pressure / Q000502:physiology
D002412:Cations; D006219:Halogens