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herbivorous diet, and also detoxify toxins that can appear in the feed. The possibility cannot be excluded that some yeasts harbouring GIT of herbivorous animals may produce extracellular enzymes (e.g. exohemicellulases, exocellulases) or show endocellulolytic activity, and thereby contribute to their digestion by braking down complex, indigestible

It is still a prevalent opinion, that yeasts harbouring the digestive tract of animals have only minor importance for the host. The main scientific argument up to date is the negligible quantity of yeasts. Nevertheless, yeasts may be of physiological relevance, even though they are present to a much lesser extent than bacteria. In fact, yeasts could provide a relevant biomass, as their have a cell volume 30- to 100-fold higher than bacteria (Gatesoupe, 2007). Commensal yeasts may interact with intestinal bacteria and due to this interplay affect microbial diversity and host organism. An example of such yeasts-bacteria interrelationship provides the study of Urubschurov et al. (2011) who examined changes of yeasts and major bacterial groups (lactobacilli, enterobacteria and enterococci) in the faeces of piglets after weaning. They observed that the increase of yeasts number, where the dominating species was *Kazachstania slooffiae*, significantly correlated with the increase of lactobacilli and decrease of enterobacteria numbers. Other studies hypothesized that specific yeasts frequently occurred in high quantity at the digestive tract of lacewings (Woolfolk & Inglis, 2004; Woolfolk et al., 2004) and mosquitoes (Ricci et al., 2011a; 2011b) and were

These first indications need further confirmation but they already show that the yeasts

Yeasts belong to gastrointestinal microbiota even though they are not as frequent as the bacteria or archea. However, it does not disclude their importance for the host and for the members of the complex microbial community. Despite long time of research, whereas our knowledge on bacterial intestinal communities has increased dramatically during last decade, still only little is known on the intestinal yeasts. This review provides an overview on what has been done in the field of intestinal yeast research up till now, and the reader surely agrees that much more work needs to be done. Not only the diversity of the intestinal yeasts and its changes depending on different conditions shall be further uncovered. The importance of yeasts for the host and the interplay between yeasts and other members of the intestinal milieu is also waiting to be explored. New cultivation techniques; cultivation combined with molecular techniques will need to be further developed to overcome the existing limitations.

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**13** 

*1Colombia 2Canada* 

**Biodiversity of** *Trichoderma* **in Neotropics** 

*2Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Eastern Cereal and Oilseed Research Centre, Ottawa* 

*Trichoderma* species frequently are predominant over wide geographic regions in all climatic zones, where they are significant decomposers of woody and herbaceous materials. They are characterized by rapid growth, an ability to assimilate a diverse array of substrates, and by their production of an range of antimicrobials. Strains have been exploited for production of enzymes and antibiotics, bioremediation of xenobiotic substances, and as biological control agents against plant pathogenic fungi and nematodes. The main use of *Trichoderma* in global trade is derived from its high production of enzymes. *Trichoderma reesei* (teleomorph: *Hypocrea jecorina*) is the most widely employed cellulolytic organism in the world, although high levels of cellulase production are also seen in other species of this genus (Baig et al., 2003, Watanabe et al., 2006). Worldwide sales of enzymes had reached the figure of \$ 1.6 billion by the year 2000 (Demain 2000, cited by Karmakar and Ray, 2011), with an annual growth of 6.5 to 10% not including pharmaceutical enzymes (Stagehands, 2008). Of these, cellulases comprise approximately 20% of the enzymes marketed worldwide (Tramoy et al., 2009). Cellulases of microbial origin are used to process food and animal feed, biofuel production, baking, textiles, detergents, paper pulp, agriculture and research areas at all levels (Karmakar and Ray, 2011). Most cellulases are derived from *Trichoderma* (section Longibrachiatum in particular) and *Aspergillus* (Begum et al., 2009). *Trichoderma* is also an efficient degrader of heteropolysaccharides such as xylan, and xylanases and mannanases are of importance in the production of fine paper (Watanabe et al., 2006). In addition, some strains of *Trichoderma* are agents of bioremediation, capable of assimilating heavy metals (Akhtar et al., 2009; Guillermina et al., 2002) and of degrading cyanide (Ezzi and Lynch, 2005) and pesticides with high persistence in the environment (Cross, 1999, Tang et al., 2009). The genus *Trichoderma* includes strains altogether producing an extremely wide range of metabolites, including compounds with antifungal activities (phenolic compounds, 6-αpentyl-pyrone, viridofunginas, harzianopiridona), antibiotics (anthraquinone, harzianodiona, gliotoxin), plant growth regulators (ciclonerodiol, α-harzianopiridonapentyl-pyrone), antimicrobial peptides including more than 200 peptaibols, and even viridiol phytotoxic compounds with potential pharmaceutical uses as anti-tumor and immunomodulatory compounds (harzianodiona and gliotoxin). These and other metabolites that are unclassified inhibitors and anti-virus agents expand the prospects of industrial, pharmaceutical or other commercial uses of this organism (Sivasithanparam and

Ghisalberti, 1998, Supothina et al., 2007, Vinal et al., 2006, Xiao-Yan et al., 2006).

**1. Introduction** 

Lilliana Hoyos-Carvajal1 and John Bissett2 *1Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Bogotá* 

