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Die gemeinsame Geschichte von Pilz und Mensch reicht Jahrtausende zurück. Pilze sind ein wichtiger Bestandteil des menschlichen Lebens und der Kultur und werden für Lebensmittel, Medizin und zahlreiche andere Zwecke verwendet. Eine der frühesten Verwendungen von Pilzen durch den Menschen war die Herstellung von fermentierten Produkten durch Hefen. Die bekannteste davon ist Saccharomyces cerevisiae; die Art, die auch unter dem Namen Bäckerhefe oder Brauhefe bekannt ist, wurde zur Mikrobe des Jahres 2022 ernannt. Hefen gelten als die ersten domestizierten Mikroorganismen. Sie haben das menschliche Leben in vielerlei Hinsicht verändert und weitgehend verbessert. Hefen waren an mehreren wichtigen wissenschaftlichen Entdeckungen und Errungenschaften direkt beteiligt. Hefen waren und sind ein wertvolles Werkzeug für Forscher in vielen Bereichen, darunter Genetik, Medizin, Biotechnologie sowie Evolutionsbiologie., The common history of fungi and humans goes back thousands of years. Fungi are an important part of human life and culture and are used for food, medicine, and various other purposes. One of the earliest uses of fungi by humans was the production of fermented products with the help of yeasts. The best-known yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is also known as baker‘s yeast or brewer‘s yeast, was named Microbe of the Year 2022. Yeasts are considered to be the first domesticated microorganisms. They have changed human life in many ways and largely improved. Yeasts have directly been involved in several important scientific discoveries and achievements. Throughout history, yeasts have been and continue to be a valuable tool for researchers in many fields, among them genetics, medicine, biotechnology as well as evolutionary biology.

Die gemeinsame Geschichte von Pilz und Mensch reicht Jahrtausende zurück. Pilze sind ein wichtiger Bestandteil des menschlichen Lebens und der Kultur und werden für Lebensmittel, Medizin und zahlreiche andere Zwecke verwendet. Eine der frühesten Verwendungen von Pilzen durch den Menschen war die Herstellung von fermentierten Produkten durch Hefen. Die bekannteste davon ist Saccharomyces cerevisiae; die Art, die auch unter dem Namen Bäckerhefe oder Brauhefe bekannt ist, wurde zur Mikrobe des Jahres 2022 ernannt. Hefen gelten als die ersten domestizierten Mikroorganismen. Sie haben das menschliche Leben in vielerlei Hinsicht verändert und weitgehend verbessert. Hefen waren an mehreren wichtigen wissenschaftlichen Entdeckungen und Errungenschaften direkt beteiligt. Hefen waren und sind ein wertvolles Werkzeug für Forscher in vielen Bereichen, darunter Genetik, Medizin, Biotechnologie sowie Evolutionsbiologie., Biologie in unserer Zeit, Early View

Pioneering studies performed in the nineteenth century demonstrated that yeasts are present in below‐ground sources. Soils were regarded more as a reservoir for yeasts that reside in habitats above it. Later studies showed that yeast communities in soils are taxonomically diverse and different from those above‐ground. Soil yeasts possess extraordinary adaptations that allow them to survive in a wide range of environmental conditions. A few species are promising sources of yeast oils and have been used in agriculture as potential antagonists of soil‐borne plant pathogens or as plant growth promoters. Yeasts have been studied mainly in managed soils such as vineyards, orchards and agricultural fields, and to a lesser extent under forests and grasslands. Our knowledge of soil yeasts is further biased towards temperate and boreal forests, whereas data from Africa, the Americas and Asia are scarce. Although soil yeast communities are often species‐poor in a single sample, they are more diverse on the biotope level. Soil yeasts display pronounced endemism along with a surprisingly high proportion of currently unidentified species. However, like other soil inhabitants, yeasts are threatened by habitat alterations owing to anthropogenic activities such as agriculture, deforestation and urbanization. In view of the rapid decline of many natural habitats, the study of soil yeasts in undisturbed or low‐managed biotopes is extremely valuable. The purpose of this review is to encourage researchers, both biologists and soil scientists, to include soil yeasts in future studies.

A large-scale comparative genomic analysis was conducted for the global human fungal pathogens within the Cryptococcus genus, compared to non-pathogenic Cryptococcus species, and related species from the sister genus Kwoniella . Chromosome-level genome assemblies were generated for multiple species of both genera, resulting in a dataset encompassing virtually all of their known diversity. Although Cryptococcus and Kwoniella have comparable genome sizes (about 19.2 and 22.9 Mb) and similar gene content, hinting at pre-adaptive pathogenic potential, our analysis found evidence in pathogenic Cryptococcus species of specific examples of gene gain (via horizontal gene transfer) and gene loss, which might represent evolutionary signatures of pathogenic development. Genome analysis also revealed a significant variation in chromosome number and structure between the two genera. By combining synteny analysis and experimental centromere validation, we found that most Cryptococcus species have 14 chromosomes, whereas most Kwoniella species have fewer (11, 8, 5 or even as few as 3). Reduced chromosome number in Kwoniella is associated with formation of giant chromosomes (up to 18 Mb) through repeated chromosome fusion events, each marked by a pericentric inversion and centromere loss. While similar chromosome inversion-fusion patterns were observed in all Kwoniella species with fewer than 14 chromosomes, no such pattern was detected in Cryptococcus . Instead, Cryptococcus species with less than 14 chromosomes, underwent chromosome reductions primarily through rearrangements associated with the loss of repeat-rich centromeres. Additionally, Cryptococcus genomes exhibited frequent interchromosomal translocations, including intercentromeric recombination facilitated by transposons shared between centromeres. Taken together, our findings advance our understanding of genomic changes possibly associated with pathogenicity in Cryptococcus and provide a foundation to elucidate mechanisms of centromere loss and chromosome fusion driving distinct karyotypes in closely related fungal species, including prominent global human pathogens.