Wickerhamomyces siamensis sp. nov., a novel yeast species isolated from the phylloplane in Thailand

Abstract

Strain DMKU-RK359T , representing a novel yeast species, was isolated from the external surface of a sugar-cane leaf collected in Thailand. On the basis of morphological, biochemical, physiological and chemotaxonomic characteristics, sequence analysis of the D1/D2 region of the large-subunit (LSU) rRNA gene and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, strain DMKU-RK359 T was assigned to a novel Wickerhamomyces species. The novel species was closest toWickerhamomyces ciferrii, but differed from it by 0.7 % nucleotide substitutions in the D1/D2 region of the LSU rRNA gene and 6 % nucleotide substitutions in the ITS region. Glushakova et al., 2007;Slavikova et al., 2009;Glushakova & Chernov, 2010; Landell et al., 2010;Kaewwichian et al., 2012;Koowadjanakul et al., 2011).During an investigation of yeasts on the external leaf surfaces of sugar cane in Thailand, strain DMKU-RK359 T , representing a novel species of Wickerhamomyces, was obtained. In this paper, it is described as the type strain of Wickerhamomyces siamensis sp. nov.One hundred and sixty-six yeast strains were isolated from the external surfaces of 95 samples of sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum L.) leaf collected in Thailand. Strain DMKU-RK359T was isolated from a sample collected from Nong Muang district, Lop Buri Province, on 5 May 2010, by an enrichment technique using acidified yeast extract-malt extract (YM) broth (0.3 % yeast extract, 0.3 % malt extract, 0.5 % peptone and 1 % glucose) supplemented with 0.025 % sodium propionate and 0.02 % chloramphenicol (Limtong et al., 2007). Cut leaves (3 g) were placed aseptically in a 250-ml Erlenmeyer flask containing 50 ml acidified YM broth and incubated on a rotary shaker at room temperature (27±3 u C) for 3 days. The enrichment culture was then spread on YM agar supplemented with 0.025 % sodium propionate and 0.02 % chloramphenicol and incubated at room temperature (27±3 u C) until yeast colonies appeared. Yeast colonies of different morphologies were picked and Abbreviations: ITS, internal transcribed spacer; LSU, large subunit.The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession numbers for the sequences of the D1/D2 region of the LSU rRNA gene and the ITS region of strain DMKU-RK359T are AB714248 and AB714257, respectively.The Mycobank number for Wickerhamomyces siamensis is MB802886.

An Updated Global Species Diversity and Phylogeny in the Genus Wickerhamomyces with Addition of Two New Species from Thailand

“…However, identification can be difficult because some species have similar appearances, and some biochemical characteristics are consistent across a number of species. In accordance with this evidence, previous species of Wickerhamomyces were originally classified into various yeast genera [1,2,4,5,50,70,75]. In 2008, the genus Wickerhamomyces was proposed by Kurtzman et al [1], wherein this genus was clearly separated from other yeast genera based on phylogenetic evidence.…”

“…Currently, only eight Wickerhamomyces species, namely W. anomalus, W. ciferrii, W. edaphicus, W. rabaulensis, W. siamensis, W. sydowiorum, W. tratensis and W. xylosicus, have been reported in Thailand [4,8,16,17,19,20,46,70,78]. Accordingly, Thailand has been identified as a hotspot for unexpected novel species and the newly recorded discovery of many microorganisms [113,114].…”

Nakazawaea siamensis f.a., sp. nov., a yeast species isolated from phylloplane

“…Although most common phylloplane yeasts are members of the basidiomycete genera viz. Cryptococcus , Rhodotorula , Sporobolomyces and Trichosporon (de Azeredo et al , 1998; Nakase et al , 2001; Fonseca & Inácio, 2006; Slavikova et al , 2009; Glushakova & Chernov, 2010), various ascomycete yeast species have also been reported, for example Debaryomyces hansenii , Hanseniaspora uvarum , Kazachstania barnettii , Metschnikowia lopburiensis , Metschnikowia pulcherrima , Metschnikowia saccharicola , Pichia membranifaciens , Saccharomyces cerevisiae , Wickerhamomyces siamensis , Yamadazyma siamensis , Yamadazyma phyllophila , Yamadazyma paraphyllophila and some species of the genus Candida including Candida aechmeae , Candida oleophila , Candida chumphonensis , Candida mattranensis and Candida vrieseae (Glushakova et al , 2007; Slavikova et al , 2009; Glushakova & Chernov, 2010; Landell et al , 2010; Koowadjanakul et al , 2011; Kaewwichian et al , 2012; Kaewwichian et al , 2013a, b).…”

Wickerhamomyces spegazzinii sp. nov., an ascomycetous yeast isolated from the fungus garden of Acromyrmex lundii nest (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

“…Some characteristics of the genus Wickerhamomyces are the formation of hat-shaped ascospores or spherical ascospores with an equatorial ledge; cell division is by multilateral budding; some species form pseudohyphae and true hyphae; asci are globose to ellipsoid, and unconjugated; some species ferment glucose and they do not assimilate methanol or hexadecane; and the diazonium blue B reaction is negative (Kurtzman et al, , 2011a. Species currently accepted in the genus have been isolated from soil (Limtong et al, 2009;Kurtzman et al, 2011a;Shin et al, 2011;Limtong et al, 2012), plant material (Groenewald et al, 2011;Kaewwichian et al, 2013;James et al, 2014), tree exudates (Kurtzman et al, 2011a;de García et al, 2010), flowers (Nakase et al, 2012;James et al, 2014), digestive tract of insects (Hui et al, 2013;James et al, 2014), insect frass (Kurtzman et al, 2011a), larvae of diptera (Rosa et al, 2009), birds (Francesca et al, 2013), natural fermentation of coffee cherries (Silva et al, 2000) and brined vegetables (Etchells & Bell, 1950). Acromyrmex lundii is an ant species in the tribe Attini (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), which have a mutualistic relationship with basidiomycetous fungi in the order Agaricales (Bonetto, 1959).…”