A microbiologist from Stellenbosch University (SU), Prof. Alf Botha, has been honoured for his contribution to the study of yeast ecology with a newly-discovered yeast species named after him.
Saturnispora bothae species nov., a yeast isolated from samples of rotten wood collected in an Atlantic rain forest in Brazil, has been described as a new species in a research article published in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology this month.
Two of the scientists responsible for describing the new species, Prof. Carlos Rosa from the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil and Prof. Marc-André Lachance from Western University in Canada, are considered world leaders in their respective fields.
In the article they state that the new species have been named "in honour of Alfred Botha, in recognition of his contributions to the study of yeast ecology".
Prof. Botha says while there are probably still millions of undiscovered yeast species, he certainly feels honoured to be recognised in this way.
While yeast ecology is usually associated with the fermentation process in wine, beer and bread, these unicellular fungi occur commonly in all kinds of environments, such as mosquito guts, fynbos roots and even the skin of whales. Prof. Botha's research group at SU's Department of Microbiology has been focusing on the interactions of these yeasts with the environment since 2000.
During that time they have made several major contributions to the understanding of, for example, the symbiosis between the yeast Cryptococcus laurentii and the roots of plants such as lupins and the medicinal fynbosplant, buchu.
In 2006 Prof. Botha was invited by Prof. Rosa to contribute a chapter on yeasts in soils in The Yeast Handbook. A 2011 article, The Importance and Ecology of Yeast in Soil, published in the journal Soil Biology and Biogeochemistry, has to date been cited 64 times.
As far as pathogenic yeasts are concerned, research from his laboratory showed how some yeasts could be utilised by mosquito larvae as food and impact on the life cycle of these insects. Prof. Botha's research group has also done extensive work on the natural habitat of Cryptococcus neoformans, a pathogenic yeast producing infectious airborne spores that causes thousands of HIV-AIDS-related deaths in Sub-Sahara Africa every year.
Currently his research group is involved in a major international research effort to search for the natural habitat of a novel Emmonsia-like opportunistic pathogenic fungus that is causing disseminated infections among HIV-infected individuals in South Africa.
More about Prof. Botha
Prof. Botha completed his BSc Agric in biochemistry at Stellenbosch University in 1978, followed by a BSc Agric honours also in biochemistry. In 1986 he joined the CSIR in Pretoria, where he was first introduced to the field of yeast biology by Prof. J.P. van der Walt, himself a student of the well-known Dutch microbiologist Prof. Albert Jan Kluyver. While working at the CSIR, he completed his MSc in 1989 at the University of Pretoria under the joint supervision of Prof. Albert Eicker and Prof. van der Walt. He received his PhD in 1993 from the University of the Free State and in 1998 he was appointed as senior lecturer at SU and promoted to associate professor in 2003 and full professor in 2011.
