Yeast Biotechnology: Diversity and Applications

This book updates the knowledge that we have accumulated over the last couple of decades on yeast research. The yeasts are eukaryotic unicellular microfungi that are widely distributed in the natural environment, and can also be found in more specialized or extreme environments, such as low temperatures, low oxygen availabilities and water potential. Approximately 1500 species of yeasts belonging to over 100 genera have been described so far. Although the vast majority of yeasts are beneficial to human life, only a few are opportunistic human pathogens. Yeasts play an important role in the food chain, and in the carbon, nitrogen and sulphur cycles. In addition, yeasts (e.g. Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Hansenula polymorpha, Pichia pastoris) are now being used to express foreign genes for producing human proteins of pharmaceutical interest.