A Cadaver Yeast and Related Species

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Abstract
Hansenula getersonii and related spp. are unusual in other respects than their tolerance to embalming fluid and phenol. The cadaver yeast has an interesting shift from fermentative to oxidative phase. The fermentative phase is nonascosporogenous and produces a stable glistening colony on YM agar. In YM liquid medium it mutates to the oxidative form which then develops at the surface to utilize the toxic, volatile products of fermentation. The oxidative form produces mat colonies, and sporulates abundantly. The mat form has less carbohydrate and more lipoidal substance on its cell wall, and is less fermentative and more oxidative in its metabolism. The change is persistent, though the degree to which the culture is oxidative may vary by degrees that are visually apparent in the colonies. This complex system occurs in all phylogenetic lines of fermentative spp. of Hansenula.