**Author details**

Eliane Barbosa Evanovich dos Santos-

Address all correspondence to: lianevanovich@gmail.com

Laboratório de Genética Humana e Médica, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas—Universidade Federal do Pará, Pará, Brasil

## **References**


**Chapter 2**

**Provisional chapter**

**Phylogeny of Three Palmwine Yeasts Genera**

**Phylogeny of Three Palmwine Yeasts Genera**

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.79958

Sequences from three palm wine yeast genera namely *Saccharomyces cerevisiae*, *Pichia kudriavzevii*, and *Candida ethanolica* were analyzed to establish their phylogenetic relationships, geographical origin, and food matrix source of their close relatives. Up to 600 sequences present in yeasts representing close relatives of palm wine yeasts were examined. Pyhlogenetic trees constructed showed polyphyletic relationships in *C. ethanolica* whereas close relatives of *S. cerevisiae* and *P. kudriavzevii* showed little divergence. Sequence data for both *Elaeis* sp. and *Raphia* sp. palm trees showed that highest number of palm wine yeasts relatives sequence submissions to the Genbank were from China and beverages were mainly the sources of close relatives of *S. cerevisiae* and *P. kudriavzevii* whereas *C. ethanolica* closest relatives were from various non-food sources. Overall relatives of palm wine yeasts were not specific to any particular food or fermentation mix. The guanine-cytosine (G+C) content in *P. kudriavzevii* (57–58%) and *C. ethanolica* (56–57%) was higher than that of *S. cerevisiae* (47.3–51%). This suggests that the *P. kudriavzevii* and *C. ethanolica* have a higher recombination rate than *S. cerevisiae* strains analyzed. The data may help to understand palm wine yeast conservation and the diverse food matrixes and geographical origins where their close relatives exist.

**Keywords:** yeasts, phylogeny, *Saccharomyces cerevisiae*, *Pichia kudriavzevii*,

Palm wine is a traditional drink consumed mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, parts of Asia, and South America. It is obtained from fermentation of saps of different palm trees. Palm wine is sourced from palm trees and they grow throughout tropical and subtropical regions with just a few species found in temperate regions possibly due to freeze intolerance of seedlings [1]. The method of obtaining the drink by tapping has been described in many reports [2] and the

> © 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.79958

Ogueri Nwaiwu

Ogueri Nwaiwu

**Abstract**

*Candida ethanolica*

**1. Introduction**
