The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of multidrug resistant yeasts in the faeces of synanthropic wild birds from the Bangsar suburb of Kuala Lumpur.
Vaginal discharge is a common complaint of women attending gynaecological clinics. The purpose of this study was to compare the occurrence of commonly implicated microorganisms in vaginal discharge amongst women with or without the complaint, attending a gynaecological and family planning clinic. The association of Gardnerella vaginalis with bacterial vaginosis was also studied. It was found that there were no significant differences between the cases and controls in the isolation rate of Gardnerella vaginalis, Torulopsis glabrata, Ureaplasma urealyticum, Mycoplasma ssp and Group B streptococcus (p greater than 0.05). Only the isolation rate of Candida albicans was significantly higher in the cases than controls (p less than 0.01). However, there was a significant association of G. vaginalis with bacterial vaginosis.
A total of 2,153 high vaginal swabs were processed for the presence of yeasts. The specimens were obtained from pregnant and non-pregnant Malaysian women with and without vaginitis. The yeast species most commonly isolated were Candida albicans, C. glabrata, C. famata and C. parapsilosis. C. albicans was isolated from 27% of pregnant women with vaginitis, 14% of pregnant women with no overt vaginitis, 15% of non-pregnant women with vaginitis, and 3% of non-pregnant women with no vaginitis. The significant difference of the isolation rates from women with and without vaginitis indicates that C. albicans is likely to be a vaginal pathogen.
Bioethanol production using yeast has become a popular topic due to worrying depleting worldwide fuel reserve. The aim of the study was to investigate the capability of Malaysia yeast strains isolated from starter culture used in traditional fermented food and alcoholic beverages in producing Bioethanol using alginate beads entrapment method. The starter yeast consists of groups of microbes, thus the yeasts were grown in Sabouraud agar to obtain single colony called ST1 (tuak) and ST3 (tapai). The growth in Yeast Potatoes Dextrose (YPD) resulted in specific growth of ST1 at micro = 0.396 h-1 and ST3 at micro = 0.38 h-1, with maximum ethanol production of 7.36 g L-1 observed using ST1 strain. The two strains were then immobilized using calcium alginate entrapment method producing average alginate beads size of 0.51 cm and were grown in different substrates; YPD medium and Local Brown Sugar (LBS) for 8 h in flask. The maximum ethanol concentration measured after 7 h were at 6.63 and 6.59 g L-1 in YPD media and 1.54 and 1.39 g L-1in LBS media for ST1 and ST3, respectively. The use of LBS as carbon source showed higher yield of product (Yp/s), 0.59 g g-1 compared to YPD, 0.25 g g-1 in ST1 and (Yp/s), 0.54 g g-1 compared to YPD, 0.24 g g-1 in ST3 . This study indicated the possibility of using local strains (STI and ST3) to produce bioethanol via immobilization technique with local materials as substrate.
The biodiversity and the killer activity of yeasts isolated from various types of fermented food in Malaysia were investigated in this study. Of 252 yeasts isolated from 48 fermented food samples in this study, 19 yeast species were identified based on sequence analysis of the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 partial fragments of the yeasts. A total of 29 (11.5%) of the yeast isolates demonstrated killer activity to at least one Candida species tested in this study; including 22 isolates of Trichosporon asahii, 4 isolates of Pichia anomala, and one isolate each of Pichia norvegensis, Pichia fermentans and Issatchenkia orientalis, respectively. The presence of killer yeasts reflects antagonism that occurs during microbial interaction in the fermented food, whereby certain yeasts produce killer toxins and possibly other toxic substances in competition for limited nutrients and space. The anti-Candida activity demonstrated by killer yeasts in this study should be further explored for development of alternative therapy against candidiasis.
This study describes the killer phenotypes of tropical environmental yeasts and the inhibition effects of the culture filtrates on the biofilm of Candida albicans. A total of 26 (10.5%) of 258 yeast isolates obtained from an environmental sampling study demonstrated killer activity to Candida species. The killer yeasts were identified as species belonging to the genus Aureobasidium, Pseudozyma, Ustilago and Candida based on sequence analysis of the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region of the yeasts. Pseudozyma showed the broadest killing effects against sensitive strains of Candida. New species of Ustilago and Pseudozyma demonstrating killer phenotypes were identified in this study. Interestingly, more than 50% reduction in the metabolic activity of Candida albicans biofilm was noted after exposure to the culture filtrates of the nine killer yeasts. Purification and characterization of toxin and metabolites are essential for understanding the yeast killing effects.