Developments in yeast taxonomy

Abstract

In April 2011 the new 5th edition of “The Yeasts, a Taxonomic Study” was published (Kurtzman et al., 2011). This prompted to give an overview to orientate the interested readers about the substantial changes having carried out in the classification of yeasts since the previous 4th edition (Kurtzman & Fell, 1998). In terms of figures, the number of approved yeast species has increased from about 700 in 93 genera (4th ed.) to about 1500 in 148 genera (5th ed.), and within the overall figures, the ratio of basidiomycetous yeast genera increased from 39% to 42% (Table 1).