The thermopile yeasts were reported to the heat stability of intracellular
membranes. When these membranes are heat labile the yeasts are not thermophilic.
An important component of membranes in temperature adaptation is unsaturated fatty
acid. Psychrophilic yeasts have a high content of unsaturated fatty acids (Kocková-
Kratochvílová, 1990). Some of fatty acid compositions of yeasts examples are shown
in Table 2.4.
Arthur and Watson (1976) concluded that a knowledge of the properties of the
biological membrane in fundamental to an understanding of the ability of a
microorganism to grow and reproduce in different temperature environments.