Herman Phaff


Herman Jan Phaff (May 30, 1913 – August 24, 2001)[1] was a scientist who specialised in yeast ecology. He was born in the Netherlands before moving to California at age of 26. He was active in Californian universities until his death. During his career he accumulated thousands of strains of yeast from the wild, and described 60 new taxa of yeast.

Herman Jan Phaff
Born(1913-05-30)May 30, 1913
Winschoten, Netherlands
DiedAugust 24, 2001(2001-08-24) (aged 88)
Academic background
Alma materTechnical University Delft
Doctoral advisorMaynard Joslyn
Academic work
DisciplineMicrobiology
InstitutionsUC Davis
Doctoral studentsArnold Demain

Biography

Early life and education

Phaff was born in Winschoten, Netherlands. His family owned a winery where he became interested in the microorganisms involved in brewing beer and fermenting wine. He studied chemical engineering at Technical University Delft, writing a dissertation on the pectinases of Penicillium chrysogenum.[2] On the advice of Albert Kluyver, when he was 26 years old he moved to California to study as a post-graduate at UC Berkeley.[3]

Career

While at Berkeley, Phaff worked in Emil Mrak's laboratory, who is said to have had a major influence on him.[2][3] When he first arrived, he was most interested in studying fruit juices, but Mrak asked him to work on yeasts, knowing he had worked in Kluyver's laboratory.[4] His PhD was supervised by Maynard Joslyn and focussed on yeast taxonomy, ecology and physiology. After completing his PhD in 1943, he accepted a faculty position at Berkeley, before moving to the food science department of UC Davis in 1954. During the 1950s, he wrote several classic scientific papers, published in Nature on yeast pectinases with Arnold Demain.[2][3][5] Whilst at UC Davis, he worked with the Chinese born food scientist, Bor S. Luh.[6] In 1969 he was named University of California at Davis Faculty Research Lecturer. In 1985 he co-authored a definitive book on viticulture with Maynard Amerine. Despite officially retiring in 1983, he maintained a busy laboratory and continued to conduct research daily.[3] His contributions to the study of yeast ecology are unparalleled.[7] At various times in his career he was an editor of several scientific journals including the Yeast Newsletter, the Journal of Bacteriology, the Canadian Journal of Microbiology and the International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology.[2]

Species classification

Phaff was a pioneer of using molecular techniques to classify yeasts, along with his colleagues and students, Phaff described over 60 yeast taxa through his career.[2] In 1976, the yeast genus Phaffia (in the Cystofilobasidiaceae family) was isolated from tree exudates and was named after Phaff, by Martin Miller and two Japanese colleagues, in recognition of his contributions to yeast taxonomy and ecology.[8] The species, Phaffia rhodozyma is economically important today because it synthesises the carotenoid pigment, astaxanthin.[7]

In 1997, Yuzo Yamada published Phaffomyces, which is a genus of fungi within the Saccharomycetales order, also named in his honour..[9][10]

Yeast collection

Through his 60-year career he collected 6400 yeast strains from animals, soil and plants (including over 1000 from cacti), from countries all around the world. There are few collections of microbial cultures so large that have been accumulated by institutions and likely none so large that have been accumulated by any other single researcher. The collection, known as the Phaff Yeast Culture Collection contains 400 of the 700 identified species of yeast and has been described as priceless, with a large number of wild type isolates making it unique amongst yeast collections.[3][11] According to the current curator, 80% of the yeasts in the collection are not available from other sources.[12] A 2003 yeast symposium organized by FEMS (Federation of European Microbiological Societies) was named in his memory[13] and the talks were summarised in a special edition of International Microbiology.[14]

Described taxa


References
  1. Phaff, H. J. (1986). "My Life With Yeasts". Annual Review of Microbiology. 40: 1–28. doi:10.1146/annurev.mi.40.100186.000245. PMID 3535641.
  2. Meyer, Sally (2002). "In memoriam – Herman J. Phaff" (PDF). International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. 52 (1): 1. doi:10.1099/00207713-52-1-1.
  3. Villa, Tomas; Enrique Herrero; Arnold Demain (29 July 2003). "In memory of Herman J. Phaff (1913–2001)" (PDF). International Microbiology. 6 (3): 155–156. doi:10.1007/s10123-003-0127-y. S2CID 85343860. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 June 2011.
  4. Emil M. Mrak (October 1974). "A Microbiologist Turned Administrator - How it Happened". Annual Review of Microbiology. 28: 1–22. doi:10.1146/annurev.mi.28.100174.000245. PMID 4611326.
  5. Demain, A. L.; Phaff, H. J. (1954). "Composition and Action of Yeast Polygalacturonase". Nature. 174 (4428): 515. Bibcode:1954Natur.174..515D. doi:10.1038/174515a0. PMID 13194026. S2CID 4266926.
  6. Shu Geng; Herman J. Phaff; David S. Reid; John R. Whitaker (2001). "University of California: In Memoriam, 2001 - Bor S. Luh, Food Science and Technology: Davis". University of California. Retrieved 2010-11-21.
  7. Johnson, Eric (September 2003). "Phaffia rhodozyma: colorful odyssey". International Microbiology. 6 (3): 169–174. doi:10.1007/s10123-003-0130-3. PMID 12898396. S2CID 37561007.
  8. Miller, M. W.; Minrou Yoneyama; Masami Soneda (April 1976). "Phaffia, a New Yeast Genus in the Deuteromycotina (Blastomycetes)" (PDF). International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology. 26 (2): 286–291. doi:10.1099/00207713-26-2-286.
  9. "Phaffomyces Y.Yamada, 1997". www.gbif.org. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  10. Burkhardt, Lotte (2022). Eine Enzyklopädie zu eponymischen Pflanzennamen [Encyclopedia of eponymic plant names] (pdf) (in German). Berlin: Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin. doi:10.3372/epolist2022. ISBN 978-3-946292-41-8. S2CID 246307410. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  11. Lamb, Celia (March 29, 2002). "UCD yeast collection is rising in prominence". Sacramento Business Journal. Retrieved 27 March 2010.
  12. "History of the Collection". Phaff Yeast Culture Collection. Archived from the original on 27 December 2009. Retrieved 27 March 2010.
  13. Martini, A; Vaughanmartini, A (2004). "Symposium: Herman Phaff: Learning from Yeast Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 23–24 September 2003". FEMS Yeast Research. 4 (8): 889–90. doi:10.1016/j.femsyr.2004.06.005. PMID 15457618.
  14. Herrero E, Demain AL, Villa TG (September 2003). "Special Issue on Herman Phaff: Learning from Yeasts". International Microbiology. 6 (3). Archived from the original on 2011-03-17. Retrieved 2010-11-17.
  15. Phaff, H. J.; Miller, M. W.; Miranda, M.; Heed, W. B.; Starmer, W. T. (1974). "Original Papers Relating to the Systematics of Yeasts: Cryptococcus cereanus, a New Species of the Genus Cryptococcus". International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology. 24 (4): 486. doi:10.1099/00207713-24-4-486.
  16. Starmer, W. T.; Phaff, H. J.; Miranda, M.; Miller, M. W. (1978). "Pichia amethionina, a New Heterothallic Yeast Associated with the Decaying Stems of Cereoid Cacti". International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology. 28 (3): 433. doi:10.1099/00207713-28-3-433.
  17. Starmer, W. T.; Phaff, H. J.; Miranda, M.; Miller, M. W. (1978). "Pichia cactophila, a New Species of Yeast Found in Decaying Tissue of Cacti". International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology. 28 (2): 318. doi:10.1099/00207713-28-2-318.
  18. Phaff, H. J.; Starmer, W. T.; Miranda, M.; Miller, M. W. (1978). "Pichia heedii, a New Species of Yeast Indigenous to Necrotic Cacti in the North American Sonoran Desert". International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology. 28 (2): 326. doi:10.1099/00207713-28-2-326.
  19. Phaff, H. J.; Carmo-Sousa, L. (1962). "Four new species of yeast isolated from insect frass in bark of Tsuga heterophylla (Raf.) Sargent". Antonie van Leeuwenhoek. 28: 193–207. doi:10.1007/BF02538734. PMID 13943102. S2CID 26462843.
  20. Miller, M. W.; Phaff, H. J.; Miranda, M.; Heed, W. B.; Starmer, W. T. (1976). "Torulopsis sonorensis, a New Species of the Genus Torulopsis". International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology. 26: 88–91. doi:10.1099/00207713-26-1-88.
  21. Starmer, W. T.; Phaff, H. J.; Miranda, M.; Miller, M. W.; Barker, J. S. F. (1979). "Pichia opuntiae, a New Heterothallic Species of Yeast Found in Decaying Cladodes of Opuntia inermis and in Necrotic Tissue of Cereoid Cacti". International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology. 29 (2): 159. doi:10.1099/00207713-29-2-159.
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