Instability of microbial enzymes in harsh industrial environments like extremes of temperature, pH and salt concentration is a major limiting factor that restricts their production and application on large scale basis. It is therefore obvious that a strain capable of growing and producing enzymes that are active in such harsh conditions  will have high  biotechnological significance.

We have isolated a novel yeast strain Debaryomyces nepalensis in our laboratory that is able to grow at high concentration of NaCl, KCl and LiCl. This strain is also capable of producing pectinases, Pectin lyase (PL) and Polygalacturonase lyase (PGL). It produces pectinase with highest activity in presence of 2 M NaCl indicating its halotolerance nature. The synergistic and antagonistic effect of other stress condition like temperature and pH on growth of D. nepalensis under salt stress condition is under study.Further research on this strain will provide information about the physiological and molecular basis of high salt tolerance in this species.