Around 100 yeast genera and 800 species have been isolated and characterized. Nagahama (2006) has reviewed yeast biodiversity in freshwater, marine and deep-Sea Environments. Our work aims at systematic biodiversity assessment of freshwater aquatic yeasts from Goa with major focus on carotenogenic basidiomycetes yeasts which on exposure to potentially damaging levels of solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) accumulate photoprotective compounds (PPC) such as mycosporine-glutaminol-glucoside (myc-glu-glu, peak absorption at 309-310nm) that server as sunscreens and /or antioxidant. These yeasts are a potential source of a particularly diverse family of such substances, collectively referred to as mycosporine- like amino-acids (MAAs). This paper presents the... |