Herman Phaff

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.{{cite journal|last=Meyer|first=Sally|year=2002|title=In memoriam – Herman J. Phaff|journal=International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology |volume=52|issue=1|pages=1|doi=10.1099/00207713-52-1-1|url=http://ijs.sgmjournals.org/cgi/reprint/52/1/1.pdf|doi-access=free}} 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.{{cite journal|doi=10.1007/s10123-003-0127-y |last=Villa |first=Tomas |author2=Enrique Herrero |author3=Arnold Demain |date=29 July 2003 |title=In memory of Herman J. Phaff (1913–2001) |journal=International Microbiology |volume=6 |pages=155–156 |url=http://www.im.microbios.org/articles0203/2003/september/01%20Villa.pdf |issue=3 |s2cid=85343860 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110613233642/http://www.im.microbios.org/articles0203/2003/september/01%20Villa.pdf |archivedate=13 June 2011 }}

While at Berkeley, Phaff worked in Emil Mrak's laboratory, who is said to have had a major influence on him. 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.{{cite journal|title=A Microbiologist Turned Administrator - How it Happened|journal=Annual Review of Microbiology|author=Emil M. Mrak|volume=28|pages=1–22|date=October 1974|doi=10.1146/annurev.mi.28.100174.000245|pmid=4611326}} 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.{{Cite journal | last1 = Demain | first1 = A. L. | last2 = Phaff | first2 = H. J. | title = Composition and Action of Yeast Polygalacturonase | journal = Nature | volume = 174 | issue = 4428 | pages = 515 | year = 1954 | pmid = 13194026 | doi = 10.1038/174515a0|bibcode = 1954Natur.174..515D | s2cid = 4266926 | doi-access = free }} Whilst at UC Davis, he worked with the Chinese born food scientist, Bor S. Luh.{{cite web|url=http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb987008v1&chunk.id=div00042&brand=calisphere&doc.view=entire_text|title=University of California: In Memoriam, 2001 - Bor S. Luh, Food Science and Technology: Davis|author1=Shu Geng |author2=Herman J. Phaff |author3=David S. Reid |author4=John R. Whitaker |publisher=University of California|year=2001|accessdate=2010-11-21}} 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. His contributions to the study of yeast ecology are unparalleled.{{cite journal|doi=10.1007/s10123-003-0130-3|last=Johnson|first=Eric|date=September 2003|title=Phaffia rhodozyma: colorful odyssey |journal=International Microbiology|volume=6|issue=3|pages=169–174|pmid=12898396|s2cid=37561007|url=http://revistes.iec.cat/index.php/IM/article/view/9422}} 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.

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. 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.{{cite journal|doi=10.1099/00207713-26-2-286|last=Miller|first=M. W. |author2=Minrou Yoneyama |author3=Masami Soneda|date=April 1976|title=Phaffia, a New Yeast Genus in the Deuteromycotina (Blastomycetes)|journal=International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology|volume=26|issue=2|pages=286–291|url=http://ijs.sgmjournals.org/cgi/reprint/26/2/286.pdf|doi-access=free}} The species, Phaffia rhodozyma is economically important today because it synthesises the carotenoid pigment, astaxanthin.

In 1997, Yuzo Yamada published Phaffomyces, which is a genus of fungi within the Saccharomycetales order, also named in his honour..{{cite web |title=Phaffomyces Y.Yamada, 1997 |url=https://www.gbif.org/species/2598991 |website=www.gbif.org |access-date=30 July 2022 |language=en}}{{cite book | last=Burkhardt | first=Lotte | title=Eine Enzyklopädie zu eponymischen Pflanzennamen |trans-title=Encyclopedia of eponymic plant names | publisher=Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin | year=2022 | isbn=978-3-946292-41-8 | url=https://doi.org/10.3372/epolist2022|format=pdf |language=German |location=Berlin | doi=10.3372/epolist2022 | s2cid=246307410 |access-date=January 27, 2022}}

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.{{cite news|url=http://sacramento.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2002/04/01/story6.html|title=UCD yeast collection is rising in prominence|last=Lamb|first=Celia|date=March 29, 2002|publisher=Sacramento Business Journal |accessdate=27 March 2010}} According to the current curator, 80% of the yeasts in the collection are not available from other sources.{{cite web|url=http://www.phaffcollection.org/history.htm |title=History of the Collection |work=Phaff Yeast Culture Collection |accessdate=27 March 2010 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20091227114028/http://www.phaffcollection.org/history.htm |archivedate=27 December 2009 }} A 2003 yeast symposium organized by FEMS (Federation of European Microbiological Societies) was named in his memory{{cite journal|title=Symposium: Herman Phaff: Learning from Yeast Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 23–24 September 2003|doi=10.1016/j.femsyr.2004.06.005|year=2004|last1=Martini|first1=A|last2=Vaughanmartini|first2=A|journal=FEMS Yeast Research|volume=4|issue=8|pages=889–90|pmid=15457618|doi-access=free}} and the talks were summarised in a special edition of International Microbiology.{{cite journal|url=http://www.im.microbios.org/articles0203/2003/september/00%20ContentsSeptember03.html |title=Special Issue on Herman Phaff: Learning from Yeasts |vauthors=Herrero E, Demain AL, Villa TG |journal=International Microbiology |volume=6 |issue=3 |date=September 2003 |accessdate=2010-11-17 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110317100224/http://www.im.microbios.org/articles0203/2003/september/00%20ContentsSeptember03.html |archivedate=2011-03-17 }}

{{Expand list|date=February 2011}}

• Cryptococcus cereanus (1974) from decaying Cereus cacti {{Cite journal | doi = 10.1099/00207713-24-4-486| last1 = Phaff | first1 = H. J. | last2 = Miller | first2 = M. W. | last3 = Miranda | first3 = M. | last4 = Heed | first4 = W. B. | last5 = Starmer | first5 = W. T. | title = Original Papers Relating to the Systematics of Yeasts: Cryptococcus cereanus, a New Species of the Genus Cryptococcus | journal = International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology | volume = 24 | issue = 4 | page = 486 | year = 1974| doi-access = free }}
• Pichia amethionina (1978) from decaying Cereoid cacti and Drosophila flies feeding on them.{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1099/00207713-28-3-433 | last1 = Starmer | first1 = W. T. | last2 = Phaff | first2 = H. J. | last3 = Miranda | first3 = M. | last4 = Miller | first4 = M. W. | title = Pichia amethionina, a New Heterothallic Yeast Associated with the Decaying Stems of Cereoid Cacti | journal = International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology | volume = 28 | issue = 3 | pages = 433 | year = 1978| doi-access = free }}
• Pichia cactophila (1978) from decaying cacti and Drosophila flies feeding on them.{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1099/00207713-28-2-318 | last1 = Starmer | first1 = W. T. | last2 = Phaff | first2 = H. J. | last3 = Miranda | first3 = M. | last4 = Miller | first4 = M. W. | title = Pichia cactophila, a New Species of Yeast Found in Decaying Tissue of Cacti | journal = International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology | volume = 28 | issue = 2 | pages = 318 | year = 1978| doi-access = free }}
• Pichia heedii (1978) from the soft rot of the cacti Lophocereus schottii and Drosophila pachea.{{Cite journal | last1 = Phaff | first1 = H. J. | last2 = Starmer | first2 = W. T. | last3 = Miranda | first3 = M. | last4 = Miller | first4 = M. W. | title = Pichia heedii, a New Species of Yeast Indigenous to Necrotic Cacti in the North American Sonoran Desert | journal = International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology | volume = 28 | issue = 2 | pages = 326 | year = 1978 | doi = 10.1099/00207713-28-2-326| doi-access = free }}
• Sporobolomyces singulari (1962) from the frass of Scolytus tsugae feeding on Western Hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla){{Cite journal | doi = 10.1007/BF02538734 | last1 = Phaff | first1 = H. J. | last2 = Carmo-Sousa | first2 = L. | title = Four new species of yeast isolated from insect frass in bark of Tsuga heterophylla (Raf.) Sargent | journal = Antonie van Leeuwenhoek | volume = 28 | pages = 193–207 | year = 1962 | pmid = 13943102 | s2cid = 26462843 }}
• Bullera tsugae (1962) from the frass of Scolytus tsugae feeding on Western Hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla)
• Cryptococcus skinneri (1962) from the frass of Scolytus tsugae feeding on Western Hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla)
• Candida oregonensis (1962) from the frass of Scolytus tsugae feeding on Western Hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla)
• Torulopsis sonorensis (1976) from decaying parts of cacti, most commonly the Organ Pipe Cactus (Stenocereus thurberi), and from Drosophila mojavensis.{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1099/00207713-26-1-88 | last1 = Miller | first1 = M. W. | last2 = Phaff | first2 = H. J. | last3 = Miranda | first3 = M. | last4 = Heed | first4 = W. B. | last5 = Starmer | first5 = W. T. | title = Torulopsis sonorensis, a New Species of the Genus Torulopsis | journal = International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology | volume = 26 | pages = 88–91 | year = 1976| doi-access = free }}
• Pichia opuntiae (1979) from the cladodes of Opuntia inermis in Australia and from the decaying parts of Cereoid cacti in North America.{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1099/00207713-29-2-159 | last1 = Starmer | first1 = W. T. | last2 = Phaff | first2 = H. J. | last3 = Miranda | first3 = M. | last4 = Miller | first4 = M. W. | last5 = Barker | first5 = J. S. F. | title = Pichia opuntiae, a New Heterothallic Species of Yeast Found in Decaying Cladodes of Opuntia inermis and in Necrotic Tissue of Cereoid Cacti | journal = International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology | volume = 29 | issue = 2 | pages = 159 | year = 1979| doi-access = free }}

{{Reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20100214121646/http://www.phaffcollection.org/ Phaff Yeast Culture Collection Web Site]

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Category:1913 births

Category:2001 deaths

Category:Dutch emigrants to the United States

Category:American microbiologists

Category:Delft University of Technology alumni

Category:University of California, Davis faculty