Pfliegler Lab at University of Debrecen

It actually causes stress in the cell wall, so a very little amount is deadly in most of the cases for yeast (I misspelled "wall" above). On this pic, the bottom 2 strains are OK in a dilution series. The top two only show growth in a spot where we inoculated 50k cells, save for one lonely colony.

Found this almost artistic bottle, probably close to 100 years old, at our Department! Still in great shape and the Congo Red is still vibrant red inside:) this substance is often used in cell will stress experiments with #yeast

#yeastevolution

We welcome @ola-gorzynska.bsky.social from Wroclaw Medical University in Debrecen! Ola will spend a month in our lab working on clinical #Saccharomyces yeast genomes. 54 Polish isolates' sequences just arrived, so the project starts w/ Andi Harmath and @balintnemeth.bsky.social ! Good luck, Ola!

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Major milestone unlocked for mycology! 🍄

We just published a massive genomic resource in 𝐒𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚, releasing 2,695 complete circular mitochondrial species assembled from public data

This single dataset nearly 𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐒 📈the known mitochondrial diversity of the Kingdom Fungi
rdcu.be/eYZ2h

New paper! Here we present the history, geographical distribution, and structure of organizations in #mycology across #Europe, as well as their activities—including journals, magazines, meetings, educational initiatives, and #citizenscience projects. doi.org/10.1007/s105... #FunDive

My first ever hairy tofu, 毛豆腐. Made with a Mucor species starter culture I ordered from Ebay. After 24 hours it was ready and I stir-fried it, the taste was cheese-like and pleasant!

Repeated losses of self-fertility shaped heterozygosity and polyploidy in #yeastevolution

Happy 40th birthday Yeast: Yeast: Vol 42, No 12 Yeast is a microbiology journal for research in the rapidly moving field of yeast biology. We publish the most significant developments in unicellular fungi.

The new year has just started and we are happy to share the news that the new issue of #Yeast (Volume 42, Number 12, December 2025) is finally out!!! 😀😀😀

This issue includes two research articles and two reviews.

You can browse it at this link:

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/10970061...

Here is our first publication of 2026 which is the first article of a special issue that mark the journal 40 anniversary - happy new year to all the #yeast community

Indeed! This is such a big surprise that the taxonomic type of A. flavus is really a weird isolate, from a weird substrate, strange location, and a surprising phylogenomic position! I wonder how this situation of oryzae/flavus can be resolved in metagenomic studies and in food safety regulations...

...came in 2021 but the manuscript was submitted only this September, in a collab with Ignazio Carbone at NCSU. So happy that this is out! By incorporating data from papers of @annemakerofhats.bsky.social, Mickey Drott, and dozens of others, we were able to analyze 639 Aspergillus Flavi genomes here

Global population genomics redefines domestication and clinical diversity in the Aspergillus flavus–oryzae complex Aspergillus flavus is a globally important human pathogen and agricultural contaminant, while its domesticated relative A. oryzae is widely used in food fermentation and biotechnology. Despite their importance, the evolutionary relationship, population structure and domestication history of these fungi remain unresolved. Here, we present the first global population genomic analysis of 639 A. flavus and A. oryzae isolates from clinical, environmental and food-fermentation sources across multiple continents. Our analyses reveal a complex evolutionary landscape comprising well-separated clades interspersed with highly admixed mosaic groups and potential evidence for multiple independent domestication events giving rise to A. oryzae. Clinical A. flavus isolates are distributed across several clades and mosaic groups, some overlapping with fermentation strains, highlighting an apparent role of domestication and admixture in shaping pathogen diversity. These results challenge current species boundaries and provide a framework for understanding evolutionary history, taxonomy and pangenomic architecture in these fungi, with broad implications for pathogenicity, food safety, biocontrol and metagenomic surveillance.

imafungus.pensoft.net/article/1723... Global population genomics redefines domestication and clinical diversity in the Aspergillus flavus–oryzae complex. Our new paper w/ @balintnemeth.bsky.social finally online in IMA Fungus! This has been a long journey, the first idea of this global phylogeny...

"Despite their rarity, yeasts likely play disproportionate roles in nutrient cycling, plant growth, and host interactions". A global synthesis of #yeast in microbiomes

An incredible agART - agar art from PhD students Andrea Harmath and @balintnemeth.bsky.social, depciting our lab's activities in #yeast research from fermentations to bioinformatics :)

As many of us 🎁 things up for the year, make sure all your ℹ️'s are dotted- and all your #yeast emojis are downloaded! If you haven't yet, make sure to add the emojyeast collection to all your 📱💻🖥️⌚️

mayaschuldiner.wixsite.com/schuldinerla...

Thanks to the amazing Schuldiner lab for these!

Can't wait to read this! Probably during a journal club with students:)

The discovery and patterns of the underlying long-standing mild-effect mutator alleles in S. cerevisiae populations. #Saccharomyces #YeastEvolution

Wow! Population-scale chemical response revealed by a barcoded yeast collection. #Saccharomyces

Invasivity in agar assays was rare, and caspofungin and anidulafungin worked best agains clinical isolates in vitro. Amphotericin B and micafungin exhibited broader MIC distributions.

We found 48% of the clinical isolates to be S. var 'boulardii' probiotic yeasts, and 33% were Mixed Origins baker's yeasts. Others came from Wine and Diastatic Ale clades, and we found evidence of long-term colonization by a very strange, unplaced lineage.

Phylogenomic diversity of clinical Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the prevalence of probiotic-derived isolates in a tertiary care center in Hungary | Microbiology Spectrum Saccharomyces cerevisiae is best known for its beneficial role in beer, bread, and wine production and is generally considered a harmless microbe. A specific subtype, S. cerevisiae var. “boulardii,” i...

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... Phylogenomic diversity of clinical #Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the prevalence of probiotic-derived isolates in a tertiary care center - our new paper in collab with @renatokovacs1.bsky.social , with PhD students @balintnemeth.bsky.social and Andrea Harmath! #yeast

I'm honored and excited to participate in the The Human Frontier Science Program's Grant Writing Masterclass in Prague! It is great to be in this beautiful city, with the recent snow the Czech Academy of Sciences' Vila Lanna building looks fantastic!

I first tried U Fleků and both of their house beers after arriving to Prague

The paper Margo Samorokov and I wrote for Brewery History Journal on Estonian farmhouse brewing is now available online, in case anyone is interested. www.breweryhistory.com/journal/arch...

Riding the train from Budapest to Prague for a grant writing masterclass, so far a really good experience! Can't wait to see the city for the first time! #lablife

We are having a great time at NCSU with students @balintnemeth.bsky.social and Andrea Harmath, meeting with the Crook Lab and @alexandraimre.bsky.social over probiotics, with Ignazio Carbone at CIFR over Aspergillus, and soon with the @caitismuheil.bsky.social Heil Lab over yeasts! Wonderful place!

We arrived to Raleigh, N.C. with my PhD students @balintnemeth.bsky.social and Andi, visiting collaborators including @alexandraimre.bsky.social and exploring the city! Here at Wye Hill Brewing.

Congratulations @alexandraimre.bsky.social well-deserved! We will toast to this soon in NC:)

A photo I have been planning to make for a long time, at the Natural History Museum of London :) #Darwin