Yeasts form significant and important part of pedosphere microbiota. They keep nature balance, participate in cycles of elements and nutrients, are antagonists of various pathogens and as important decomposers, they produce the whole spectrum of different extracellular enzymes. The aim of this study was to determine the ability of yeasts, isolated from the soil adjacent to the fruit trees in Southwest Slovakia as well as from the contaminated soil (Pernek area, Slovakia), to produce extracellular enzymes. In total, 68 strains belonging to 45 different species were tested for the production of starch-like polysaccharide and for extracellular enzyme activities: polygalacturonases, lipases, proteases, cellulases, chitinases, -glucosidases and -amylases. This work was also focused on optimization of method for the yeast chitinase assay. Four methods were proved; two of them utilized liquid medium with chitin (colloidal and insoluble) as the sole carbon source and two others used solid plate methods with agar medium containing chitin. Based on results, cultivation in colloidal liquid chitin medium, terminated by the chitinase assay according to Ehrlich, was evaluated as the best method for detection of predominant exochitinase activity of yeasts. More than 75 % of tested yeasts exhibited some extracellular activity. Generally, the yeasts isolated from the soil under the fruit trees showed broader spectrum of enzyme activities than those originated from contaminated soils. Lipases, proteases and -glucosidases were found to be the most common activities. Only small proportion of yeasts was able to produce chitinases and/or cellulases. Aureobasidium pullulans, CCY 27-1-134, from the soil adjacent to the apple tree, showed the widest range of activities from all tested strains and it possessed all examined activities. On the other side, it did not produce starch-like polysaccharide. Tausonia (Trichosporon) pullulans and Cystofilobasidium macerans were the second most active producers of extracellular enzymes with variations in production of cellulases and -amylases. Representatives of the former polyphyletic genus Cryptococcus exhibited lipases, -glucosidases, -amylases and they were producers of the starch, but the interspecies differences were also noted. All strains of the genus Galactomyces were positive for polygalacturonases and the genera Candida and Cyberlindnera were positive for -glucosidases. All strains of Galactomyces candidum were tested for the production of polygalacturonases during 168 hours long cultivation on pectin media. Strain CCY 16-3-4 showed very stable growth on this medium and simultaneously exhibited significant amount of extracellular polygalactouronases. It has a potential to be very suitable producer of these enzymes but particular characterization of properties is necessary for its future use. Results of the screening showed that the production of extracellular enzymes is mostly strain-dependent and not species-dependent.

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