Yeast Smell Like What They Eat: Analysis of Volatile Organic Compounds of Malassezia furfur in Growth Media Supplemented with Different Lipids

Abstract

Malassezia furfur is part of the human skin microbiota. Its volatile organic compounds (VOCs) possibly contribute to the characteristic odour in humans, as well as to microbiota interaction. The aim of this study was to investigate how the lipid composition of the liquid medium influences the production of VOCs. Growth was performed in four media: (1) mDixon, (2) oleic acid (OA), (3) oleic acid + palmitic acid (OA+PA), and (4) palmitic acid (PA). The profiles of the VOCs were characterized by HS-SPME/GC-MS in the exponential and stationary phases. A total number of 61 VOCs was found in M. furfur, among which alkanes, alcohols, ketones, and furanic compounds were the most abundant. Some compounds previously reported for Malassezia (γ-dodecalactone, 3-methylbutan-1-ol, and hexan-1-ol) were also found. Through our experiments, using univariate and multivariate unsupervised (Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA)) and supervised (Projection to Latent Structures Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA)) statistical techniques, we have proven that each tested growth medium stimulates the production of a different volatiles profile in M. furfur. Carbon dioxide, hexan-1-ol, pentyl acetate, isomer5 of methyldecane, dimethyl sulphide, undec-5-ene, isomer2 of methylundecane, isomer1 of methyldecane, and 2-methyltetrahydrofuran were established as differentiating compounds among treatments by all the techniques. The significance of our findings deserves future research to investigate if certain volatile profiles could be related to the beneficial or pathogenic role of this yeast.

Bacterial phylogeny predicts volatile organic compound composition and olfactory response of an aphid parasitoid

“…These compounds were particularly produced by a phylogenetically related subset of Bacillus strains, i.e. strains from clade A and B, whereas they were absent or only produced in low amounts by strains belonging to clade C to clade F. However, it is important to note that the compounds detected in this study were only tentatively identified through GC-MS analysis and that the precise composition of volatile blends emitted by microorganisms may depend on the nutrient medium used to cultivate them (Gonzalez et al 2019). GC peak enhancement with co-injection of authentic standards should be performed to achieve absolute identification of the compounds and analyses ideally should be repeated for different media to investigate how culturing conditions affect the composition of mVOC blends and associated response of parasitoids.…”

Learning about microbial language: possible interactions mediated by microbial volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and relevance to understanding Malassezia spp. metabolism

“…This suggests that Malassezia VOCs production is stimulated by the compounds in the growth media, demonstrating once again the dynamic metabolism in this yeast. Also, the results showed the decrease in volatile production in a medium supplemented with palmitic acid in which the alkanes were predominant (Gonzalez et al 2019).…”

“…Studies about the interaction type microbe-host-insect have been conducted. It has been reported that VOCs from bacteria belonging to human microbiota like Staphylococcus sp., Corynebacterium sp., Bacillus sp., produce certain volatiles that attract malaria mosquitoes (Verhulst et al 2009(Verhulst et al , 2010, and they have been reported also in the yeast Malassezia furfur (Gonzalez et al 2019). Further analyzes are necessary to elucidate the role of these VOCs for Malassezia in the interaction between fungi-host-insect.…”

“…Recently, a study in Malassezia genus revealed the production of 61 VOCs in different growth media: mDixon, and minimal medium supplemented with oleic acid, oleic acid + palmitic acid, and palmitic acid for M. furfur; the analyses were conducted in exponential and stationary phases of the yeast (Gonzalez et al 2019). The compounds were characterized by headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS).…”

“…Other reasons are the differences in the growth media, and mainly the techniques employed for VOCs sampling. However, the different growing requirements of species, combined with the importance of media determining VOCs suggest secondary metabolites also differ between species (Gonzalez et al 2019).…”