QUALITATIVE COMPARISON OF WILD YEAST STRAINS INHABITING PLANT ORGANS OF CULTURED CEREAL GRAINS AND ADJACENT PLANT COMMUNITIES IN NORTH MACEDONIA
QUALITATIVE COMPARISON OF WILD YEAST STRAINS INHABITING PLANT ORGANS OF CULTURED CEREAL GRAINS AND ADJACENT PLANT COMMUNITIES IN NORTH MACEDONIA

Summary/Abstract: The microbial communities of the phytosphere are diverse ecosystems which impact the growth and development of their plant host via complex feedback mechanisms. Wild yeasts are ubiquitous inhabitants of these microbial systems (Gouka et al., 2022). Their functions are diverse, however their metabolic adaptability does not confer them an immunity to the hazardous effects of herbicides, pesticides and insecticides (Ando et al., 2005). Global trends of elucidating these communities are already in effect, most often with the end goal of discovering novel strains for industrial demand. The goal of this study is to achieve an inquiry into the biodiversity of yeasts which naturally occupy our cereal cultures within the crop cycle and the wild yeasts of adjacent plant communities. With the goal in mind, we sampled cereal grains from cultures of the genera Triticum, Hordeum, Secale and Avena and adjacent flowering plants of the genera Papaver, Achillea and Arrhenatherum. These samples were spread across 11 sampling points between three regions of different altitude and climate in North Macedonia. Using classic media based isolation techniques, unique wild yeasts strains were cultivated from each sample and cross-referenced across several parameters, including morphological characteristics such as cell dimensions and mean deviation of dimensions across cells of the same isolate and metabolic characteristics such as tolerance to cycloheximide. This data served to generate complete descriptions of each isolate and determine trends across these fascinating yeast communities. These adaptations showed a general trend of a single dominant phenotype (50% or more) of the captured strains, along with an opportunistic filamentous phenotype across most samples. Among all samples, the predominant phenotype presented as typical smooth confluent yeast morphology with sweet olfactory profiles and slightly rod-like cells of various sizes. The end results showed a trend of convergent traits emerging among strains isolated from the same samples, which may point towards a host-independent adaptation strategy, which represents an interesting avenue of future research for the development of novel wild yeast strains for biotechnology and ecological monitoring.

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