Eukaryotic Micro-Organisms

Saccharomycopsis fodiens sp. nov., a rare predacious yeast from three distant localities

  • 1Department of Biology, University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 5B7, Canada
  • 2Department of Microbiology, ICB, C.P. 486, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG 31270-901, Brazil
  • 3Colección de Levaduras Quito Católica, Centro Neotropical para Investigación de la Biomasa, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Escuela de Ciencias Biológicas, CP 17-01-2184, Quito, Ecuador
  • Correspondence
    Marc-André Lachance lachance{at}uwo.ca
  • International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology 2012; 62(Pt 11):2793–2798 · https://doi.org/10.1099/ijs.0.043109-0

    View at publisher PubMed

    Abstract

    Three strains representing a novel yeast species were recovered as part of independent collections from flower-associated nitidulid beetles in Australia, Costa Rica and the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Analysis of the D1/D2 domains of the large subunit rRNA gene indicated that the species belongs to the genus Saccharomycopsis, although the formation of ascospores was not observed. The yeast is capable of necrotrophic parasitism by means of infection pegs when mixed with other yeasts or filamentous fungi. Of particular interest is the fact that despite the large distances separating the isolation sites of the three strains, other strains of the species have not been recovered in other samples of flower-associated nitidulids even though these habitats have been sampled extensively. It is suggested that the dispersal of the yeast may be linked to human historical factors. The name Saccharomycopsis fodiens sp. nov. is proposed for the yeast. The type strain is UWOPS 95-697.4T ( = CBS 8332T = NRRL Y-48786T).

    • The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession number for the D1/D2 LSU rRNA gene sequence of strain UWOPS 95-697.4T is AF203418.

    • The MycoBank number for Saccharomycopsis fodiens sp. nov. UWOPS 95-697.4T is MB564897.