Background: The yeast strain IB09 was isolated from the gut of
Calosoma
sp. (Carabidae, Coleoptera, Insecta) that were collected in the central Amazon rainforest. First, tolerance of the strain to ethanol and heat was tested. Then, IB09 was cultivated in a medium using sugarcane bagasse hemicellulosic hydrolyzate as a carbon source, and cell growth (OD
600), specific growth rate (μ
MAX, h
-1), biomass yield (Y
B, g.g
-1) and relative sugar consumption (RSC, %) were evaluated. Taxonomic identification was determined by sequencing the ITS1 region of IB09 and comparing it to sequences obtained from the GenBank database (NCBI).
Results: IB09 showed both ethanol tolerance and thermotolerance. Relative sugar consumption indicated that IB09 was able to perform saccharification of sugarcane bagasse hemicellulosic hydrolyzate, increasing the total reducing sugar concentration by approximately 50%. The μ
MAX value obtained was 0,20, indicating that cell growth was slow under the assessed conditions. Biomass yield was 0,701 g per g of consumed sugar, which is relatively high when compared with other findings in the literature. After 120 hrs of cultivation, 80,1% of total reducing sugar had been consumed. Sequencing of the ITS1 region identified IB09 as
Trichosporon mycotoxinivorans
.
Conclusion: This is the first report to document this species in the central Amazon rainforest at this host.
Trichosporon mycotoxinivorans has great biotechnological potential for use in the saccharification of sugarcane bagasse hemicellulosic hydrolyzate and for biomass production with this substrate as carbon source.
