Characterization of the Holtermanniella wattica, unreported yeast species isolated from soil in South Korea

Seonjae Kim CS-1 Fungal systematics and diversity

Characterization of the Holtermanniella wattica, unreported yeast species

isolated from soil in South Korea

Seonjae Kim, Srinivasan Sathiyaraj *

Department of Bio & Environmental Technology, Seoul Women’s University, Seoul 01797,

Republic of Korea

*Email: biotech@swu.ac.kr

In the current study, we have isolated and identified 4 wild basidiomycetous yeasts from the soil samples collected from Dong-gu, Daegu, Republic of Korea. One yeast strain isolated from the soil samples belonging to the order Tremellomycetes is unreported strain in the Republic of Korea. The D1/D2 region of the 26S rRNA gene sequence of the isolated strain is analysed with closely related reference strains using the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) and we can find this strain has two different nucleotides with closely related reference strain. The biochemical characteristics of the yeast strain was tested using an API 20C AUX kit, and the morphological characteristics of the cell was observed using the phase contrast microscope.

This strain was assigned to the phyla Basidiomycota in the order Tremellomycetes. The yeast strain PG2-2-10C, belong to the genus Holtermanniella. The strain had oval-shaped and polar budding cells. This research focuses on the morphological and biochemical properties of one unreported yeast species that have not been officially reported in Korea.