ARS | Publication request: Alloascoidea hylecoeti gen. nov., comb. nov., Alloascoidea africana comb. nov., Ascoidea tarda sp. nov. and Nadsonia starkeyi-henricii comb. nov., new members of the Saccharomycotina (Ascomycota)

Submitted to: Federation Of European Microbiological Societies Yeast Research
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: March 11, 2013
Publication Date: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Understanding relatedness among microorganisms is important to basic science as well as to more applied areas such as food safety, biotechnology and homeland security. Since many microorganisms look much alike under the microscope, DNA sequence comparisons are needed to determine whether species are closely or distantly related. In the present study, species assigned to the yeast genus Ascoidea were discovered from DNA analysis to represent two distantly related groups despite the morphological similarity of the species. From this work, we describe the new genus Alloascoidea and a new species of Ascoidea. The information provided in this study will be used by taxonomists, biotechnologists, agricultural scientists and others needing to rapidly identify yeasts and to understand their relationships with other species.

Technical Abstract: Phylogenetic analysis of concatenated nuclear gene sequences for large and small subunit rRNAs, translation elongation factor 1-a and the two large subunits of RNA polymerase II (RPB1, RPB2) demonstrated that species assigned to the yeast genus Ascoidea represent two separate and distantly related clades, i.e., Ascoidea (A. asiatica, NRRL Y-17632, CBS 377.68; A. rubescens, NRRL Y-17699, CBS 116.35, type species; A. tarda sp. nov., NRRL Y-2393, CBS 12609), which is near the genus Saccharomycopsis, and Alloascoidea gen. nov. (Al. africana comb. nov., NRRL Y-6762-3, CBS 12606, Al. hylecoeti comb. nov., NRRL Y-17634, CBS 355.80, type species), which is near Nadsonia and related genera. From these analyses and from comparison of herbarium specimens, it appears that type strains of A. asiatica and Al. africana had been reversed. Sequence analysis further showed that Schizoblastosporion starkeyi-henricii is a sister species of Nadsonia fulvescens and it is proposed for transfer to Nadsonia.