Searching for unknown yeasts in Hawaiian soils, waters, plants, animals
Rhodotorula yeast. Credit: M. Catherine Aime, Purdue University
It is estimated that scientists have discovered only one percent of the yeast species thought to exist on Earth. With a four-year, $1 million project, funded by the National Science Foundation, Anthony Amend, professor in the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), hopes to change this—by shedding light on what is known as a ‘dark area’ of the fungal tree of life.
Yeasts impact human health and food safety, play critical roles in ecosystems. Some of these produce high-value oils and pigments which are a key element in certain pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and food additives.
Amend along with a team of researchers and graduate students will partner with Hi‘ipaka LLC at the Waimea Botanical Garden, O‘ahu Army Natural Resource Program, and Honolulu Zoo to collect yeasts from plants, soils, streams, and animals on O‘ahu. They will systematically isolate and describe yeasts present in these environments using a combination of genome sequencing, and new technology to get these cultures to grow under laboratory conditions.
“Because we know so little about yeast diversity and their distributions, it’s difficult to understand the evolutionary history of the larger fungal tree of life, including mushrooms, medicines, and plant symbionts upon which human livelihoods rely,” said Amend. “This project will make it so much easier to identify pathogens, and will help us to understand the cryptic biological diversity comprising microbiomes that reside inside plants and animals.”
UH advancing frontiers of microbiome research
This project stems directly from Amend and other UH researchers’ previous work sampling the Waimea watershed to understand how microbiomes are connected by foodwebs at large scales. Preliminary analysis from the Waimea samples showed that Hawai‘i, remarkably, contains yeast diversity equal to about half of all yeast species described worldwide.
“Had it not been for the sustained collaborations of botanists, stream ecologists, marine biologists, and soil scientists working together to understand microbiomes, we’d never have this type of holistic picture of Hawaiian diversity,” shared Amend. “This is also a testament to our culture in Hawai’i and at UH Mānoa of sharing data and working towards a common purpose. This contributes to the growing reputation of UH Mānoa as a leader in environmental microbiome research.”
Amend anticipates identifying potentially hundreds of novel yeast species. These new insights into yeast diversity will be used to predict global species diversity, host and habitat specificity, and diversity hotspots. They plan to work with Hawaiian cultural practitioner Sam Gon to give every new species an ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi-Latin name.
“Lots of studies suggest that Hawaiian biodiversity is uniquely endemic,” said Amend. “I’m excited to see whether that extends to Hawaiian microbes like fungi. Additionally, we’ve already shown that these yeasts are important for Hawaiian conservation and even plastic degradation, so this biodiversity discovery work might be the first step in breakthrough technology.”