Wickerhamomyces anomalus in the sourdough microbial ecosystem

We previously found that Wickerhamomyces anomalus (formerly Hansenula anomala, Pichia anomala) was the second most frequently isolated yeast in Belgian artisan bakery sourdoughs and that the yeast dominated laboratory sourdough fermentations. Such findings are of interest in terms of the advantage of W. anomalus over other commonly encountered sourdough yeasts and its potential introduction into the sourdough ecosystem. Here, we provide a brief overview of current knowledge on yeast ecology and diversity in sourdough in the context of the potential natural habitat of W. anomalus. Insight into the population structure of W. anomalus was obtained by comparing internal transcribed spacer rDNA sequences of selected sourdough isolates with publicly available database sequences.