Spathaspora arborariae has been sequenced because it is
one of the few species of budding yeasts that is known to ferment
D-xylose (1). It has been previously isolated from rotting wood in
both the Atlantic Rainforest and Cerrado ecosystems in Brazil
(1). Its ability to ferment xylose makes it a potentially
useful yeast for biofuel production from plant hydrolysates (2).
S. arborariae produces a mixture of ethanol and xylitol
during xylose fermentation under oxygen-limited conditions (3). A
draft genome consisting of 41 scaffolds has been previously
assembled using short-read sequencing technology (4), but improved
assembly using longer read technology will provide resources for
resequencing projects as well as improved assembly of subtelomeric
regions of chromosomes.
References
1. Cadete RM, et al. (2009) Spathaspora arborariae sp.
nov., a d-xylose-fermenting yeast species isolated from rotting
wood in Brazil. FEMS Yeast Res. 9(8):1338-1342.
2. da Cunha-Pereira F, et al. (2011) Conversion of sugars present
in rice hull hydrolysates into ethanol by Spathaspora
arborariae, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and their
co-fermentations. Biores. Technol. 102(5):4218-4225.
3. Cadete RM, et al. (2016) Exploring xylose metabolism in
Spathaspora species: XYL1.2 from Spathaspora
passalidarum as the key for efficient anaerobic xylose
fermentation in metabolic engineered Saccharomyces
cerevisiae. Biotechnol. Biofuels. (9):167.
4. Lobo FP, et al. (2014) Draft Genome Sequence of the
d-Xylose-Fermenting Yeast Spathaspora arborariae
UFMG-HM19.1AT. Genome Announc. 2(1):e01163-13.