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

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.