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Molecular Mechanisms of Adaptations to High Salt Concentration in the Extremely Halotolerant Black Yeast Hortaea werneckii

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Halophiles and Hypersaline Environments

Abstract

The discovery of the black yeast Hortaea werneckii as the dominant fungal species in hypersaline waters enabled the introduction of a new model organism to study the mechanisms of salt tolerance in eukaryotes. H. werneckii is also a promising source of transgenes to improve osmotolerance of industrially important yeasts, as well as crops. This chapter describes the physiological and molecular adaptations to hypersaline conditions observed in the extremely halotolerant H. werneckii.

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Acknowledgment

The scientific work was partly financed via operation “Centre of excellence for integrated approaches in chemistry and biology of proteins” number OP13.1.1.2.02.0005, and financed by European regional development fund, by Slovenian Ministry of higher education, science, and technology (15% share of financing), and Slovenian Research Agency (85% share of financing).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Ana Plemenitaš

  2. Department of Biology, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Nina Gunde-Cimerman

  3. Centre of Excellence for Integrated Approaches in Chemistry and Biology of Proteins (CIPKeBiP), Jamova 39, SI-1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Nina Gunde-Cimerman

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  1. Ana Plemenitaš
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  2. Nina Gunde-Cimerman
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Correspondence to Nina Gunde-Cimerman .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Microbiology, University of Sevilla, Profesor García González 2, Sevilla, 41012, Spain

    Antonio Ventosa

  2. The Institute of Life Sciences, Department of Plant and Environmental Sc, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 91904, Israel

    Aharon Oren

  3. , Insitute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beichen West Road 1, Beijing, China, People's Republic

    Yanhe Ma

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Plemenitaš, A., Gunde-Cimerman, N. (2011). Molecular Mechanisms of Adaptations to High Salt Concentration in the Extremely Halotolerant Black Yeast Hortaea werneckii . In: Ventosa, A., Oren, A., Ma, Y. (eds) Halophiles and Hypersaline Environments. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-20198-1_7

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