A new Barnettozyma species forming hat-shaped ascospores isolated from soil in Japan

In the course of a study on yeast diversity in Japan, we isolated 331 yeast strains from natural substrates in Rishiri Island, which belongs to the subarctic zone. Among the isolates from soil, two strains produced hat-shaped ascorspores and showed that reproduction occurred by conjugation of a larger cell and a smaller one. We surveyed strains preserved in our culture collection, NBRC, and found one Barnettozyma strain; thus we examined these three strains. A phylogenetic tree based on the D1/D2 domain of 26S rDNA (D1/D2) shows that these strains are included in the Barnettozyma clade, but clearly separated from the known Barnettozyma and Candida species within the clade. This group is distinguishable from B. vustinii by the ability to assimilate sucrose and maltose, and from B. populi by the ability to ferment glucose and to assimilate L-sorbose, sucrose, maltose, alpha-methyl-D-glucoside, and salicin. We propose that the group represent a new species, B. sucrosica sp. nov. (NBRC 105021(T)=CBS 11512(T), Mycobank no. MB515733).