Yeasts are a diverse group of fungal microorganisms that are widely used to produce fermented foods and beverages. In Mexico, open fermentations are used to obtain spirits from agave plants. Despite the prevalence of this traditional practice throughout the country, yeasts have only been isolated and studied from a limited number of distilleries. To systematically describe the diversity of yeast species from open agave fermentations, here we generate the YMX-1.0 culture collection by isolating 4524 strains from 68 sites with diverse climatic, geographical, and biological contexts. We used MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry for taxonomic classification and validated a subset of the strains by ITS and D1/D2 sequencing, which also revealed two potential novel species of Saccharomycetales. Overall, the composition of yeast communities was weakly associated with local variables and types of climate, yet a core set of six species was consistently isolated from most producing regions. To explore the intraspecific variation of the yeasts from agave fermentations, we sequenced the genomes of four isolates of the nonconventional yeast Kazachstania humilis. The genomes of these four strains were substantially distinct from a European isolate of the same species, suggesting that they may belong to different populations. Our work contributes to the understanding and conservation of an open fermentation system of great cultural and economic importance, providing a valuable resource to study the biology and genetic diversity of microorganisms living at the interface of natural and human-associated environments.

中文翻译：

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墨西哥各地开放式龙舌兰发酵中的酵母多样性

酵母是一类多样化的真菌微生物，广泛用于生产发酵食品和饮料。在墨西哥，开放式发酵用于从龙舌兰植物中获取烈酒。尽管这种传统做法在全国都很流行，但仅从有限数量的酿酒厂中分离和研究了酵母。为了系统地描述来自开放式龙舌兰发酵的酵母物种的多样性，我们通过从具有不同气候、地理和生物背景的 68 个地点分离 4524 个菌株来生成 YMX-1.0 培养物保藏。我们使用 MALDI-TOF 质谱进行分类学分类，并通过 ITS 和 D1/D2 测序验证了菌株的子集，这也揭示了酵母目的两个潜在新物种。总体而言，酵母菌群落的组成与当地变量和气候类型的相关性较弱，但六种核心物种始终与大多数产区分离。为了探索龙舌兰发酵酵母的种内变异，我们对非传统酵母Kazachstania humilis的四个分离株的基因组进行了测序。这四种菌株的基因组与同一物种的欧洲分离株显着不同，表明它们可能属于不同的种群。我们的工作有助于理解和保护具有重大文化和经济重要性的开放发酵系统，为研究生活在自然和人类相关环境交界处的微生物的生物学和遗传多样性提供了宝贵的资源。