Flowers in Islands and Mountains of Korea

Yeasts were isolated from wild flowers of some islands and mountains such as Jeju-do, Ulleungdo, Yokjido, Seonyudo and Gyejoksan, Oseosan, Beakamsan and Deogyusan in Korea and were identified by comparison of nucleotide sequences for PCR-amplified D1/D2 region of 26S rDNA or internal transcribed pacer(ITS) 1 and 2 including 5.8S rDNA using BLAST. Seventy two yeast strains of two hundred eighty nine species were isolated from wild flowers in islands and mountains, Korea. Among them, Cryptococcus species were isolated the most dominantly, and Metschnikowia reukaufii were also isolated thirty species, 10.3% of total strains. Twenty-three species including Cryptococcus aureus were overlapped between yeast strains of the islands and mountains. Some physiological functionality of the culture broth and cell-free extracts from two hundred eighty nine yeast strains were determined. The supernatant of Candida sp. 78-J-2 showed antioxidant activity of 22.5%, and supernatant of Metschnilowia reukaufii SY44-6 showed anti-gout xanthine oxidase inhibitory activity of 49.6% and whitening tyrosinase inhibitory activity of 38.4%, respectively.