S62: Why industrial researchers should care about yeast taxonomy: Species concepts as seen through the eyes of a culture collection curator

The Phaff Yeast Culture Collection at the University of California Davis is utilized by researchers in pharmaceutical, agricultural, biofuels, and other industries.  A common interest of all our industrial clients is proper species identification, but for a variety of reasons.  For example, a company that develops and markets clinical diagnostic kits may require properly identified pathogenic species for testing their products.  Conversely, a biotechnology company may prefer to avoid using yeasts that belong to species know to be human, animal or plant pathogens.  A food ingredient company may need to know that the yeasts they utilize belong to species that have been designated by the FDA as Generally Regarded as Safe (GRAS).  A biofuels company that licenses all yeasts from the collection that belong to a specific species relies on proper identification of all yeasts in the collection’s catalog.  For these reasons, a yeast culture collection curator must know the principles of taxonomy, including how the various species concepts are applied.  Furthermore, the curator must also stay abreast of changes in yeast taxonomy, such as the recent major revision of the industrially important genus Pichia.  Application of the general principles of yeast taxonomy will be presented as a series of informative case studies.