Extremely halotolerant and halophilic fungi inhabit brine in solar salterns around the globe

• Published in: Food technology and biotechnology Vol. 52; no. 2; p. 170
• Main Authors: Gunde-Cimerman, Nina, Zalar, Polona
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Zagreb Sveuciliste U Zagrebu 01.04.2014; Sveuciliste u Zagrebu, Prehramheno-Biotehnoloski Fakultet; University of Zagreb Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology
• Subjects: Aspergillus; Bacteria; black yeasts; Cladosporium; Emericella; Eurotium; Food; Food contamination; Fungi; Lipids; Penicillium; Physiological aspects; Saline water; Salt; salterns; Sterols; Yeast; Netherlands; Israel; Slovenia; Great Salt Lake; Dead Sea
• ISSN: 1330-9862; 1334-2606

For a long time halotolerant and halophilic fungi have been known exclusively as contaminants of food preserved with high concentrations of either salt or sugar. They were first reported in 2000 to be active inhabitants of hypersaline environments, when they were found in man-made solar salterns in Slovenia. Since then, they have been described in different salterns and salt lakes on three continents. The mycobiota that inhabit these natural hypersaline environments are composed of phylogenetically unrelated halotolerant, extremely halotolerant, and halophilic fungi, which are represented not only by species previously known only as food contaminants, but also by new and rare species. The dominant representatives are different species of black yeast-like and related melanized fungi of the genus Cladosporium, different species within the anamorphic Aspergillus and Penicillium, and the teleomorphic Emericella and Eurotium, certain species of non-melanized yeasts, and Wallemia spp. Until the discovery and description of indigenous saltern mycobiota, the physiological and molecular mechanisms related to salt tolerance in eukaryotic microorganisms were studied using salt-sensitive model organisms.