Starmerella bombicola (Saccharomycetales: incertae sedis) is a diploid ascomycetous yeast isolated from a diversity of sugar-rich environments including flowers, nectar, honey, grape, wine ferments and flower-visiting insects, such as bumble bee and sap beetles (1-5). The asexual heterothallic haploid life-stage of this yeast is of special biotechnological interest as it produces a sophorose lipid with surfactant properties (6-7). Belonging to a small clade of ‘fermentative’ and osmotolerant yeasts, Starmerella bombicola is closely related to C. etchellsii, C. apicola, C. bombi, C. floricola, C. stellate and C. lactis-condensi. Similarity in their carbon compound usage suggests specialization towards a common niche, and a likely habitat association with nectar-feeding insects (2).
The sequenced strain was isolated from the nectar of sticky monkeyflower (Diplacus aurantiacus) in Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, California in 2011 (8).
References:
- Rosa, CA, Lachcnace M-A 1998 The yeast genus Starmerella gen. nov. and Starmerella bombicola sp. nov., the teleomorph of Candida bombicola (Spencer, Gorin & Tullock) Meyer & Yarrow. International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology 48, 1413-1417.
- Spencer, J. F. T., Gorin, P. A. J. & Tulloch, A. P. (1970). Torulopsis bombicola sp. n. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 36, 129-133.
- Lachance M-A, Wijayanayaka TM, Bundus JD et al. (2011) Ribosomal DNA sequence polymorphism and the delineation of two ascosporic yeast species: Metschnikowia agaves and Starmerella bombicola. FEMS Yeast Research 11, 324–33.
- Inglis, G.D., Sigler, L. & Goette, M.S. (1993) Aerobic microorganisms associated with alfalfa leafcutter bees (Megachile rotundata). Microbial Ecology 26, 125–14.
- Ok, T & Hashinaga F (2006) Identification of sugar-tolerant yeasts isolated from high-sugar fermented vegetable extracts, The Journal of General and Applied Microbiology 43, 39-47.
- Kim, S.Y., Oh, D. K., Lee, K. H. & Kim, J. H. (1997). Effect of soybean oil and glucose on sophorose lipid fermentation by Torulopsis bombicola in continuous culture. Applied Microbiology Biotechnology 48, 23-46.
- Marilyn De Graeve, Sofie L De Maeseneire, Sophie L K W Roelants, Wim Soetaert (2018) Starmerella bombicola, an industrially relevant, yet fundamentally underexplored yeast, FEMS Yeast Research, 18 (7) foy072
- Peay KG, Belisle M & Fukami T (2012) Phylogenetic relatedness predicts priority effects in nectar yeast communities. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 279(1729): 749–758.