Yeasts colonizing the leaves of fruit trees

Abstract

Yeasts were isolated from leaf surfaces of five species of fruit trees located in southwest Slovakia. One hundred and fifty five yeast strains belonging to 11 genera were isolated from 300 samples of leaves. Seventeen yeast species were identified, but only three occurred regularly:Aureobasidium pullulans, Cryptococcus laurentii, andMetschnikowia pulcherrima. Species such asHanseniaspora uvarum, Pichia anomala, Rhodotorula glutinis, andSaccharomyces cerevisiae, were isolated less frequently. We found only few differences in the yeast community isolated from leaves of different tree species although dominant species occurred regularly on the majority of leaves. Furthermore, yeast species varied throughout years. In spite of the fact that the yeast community occupying the leaves of the fruit trees was studied in the samples harvested in three localities, which are distanced from each other some kilometers, the qualitative representation of the most isolated yeasts was identical. The differences were only in the frequency of the incidence of individual species in the samples.