Candida xylosifermentans sp. nov., a D-xylose-fermenting yeast species isolated in Thailand

Three strains, representing a novel anamorphic and D-xylose-fermenting yeast species, were isolated from moss (ST-302(T)), seawater (ST-1169) and peat (DMKU-XE12) collected from the southern part of Thailand. The three strains had identical sequences of the D1/D2 regions of the large subunit (LSU) rRNA gene and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions. Candida flosculorum CBS 10566(T) and Candida sharkiensis CBS 11368(T) were the most closely related species with 7.9% nucleotide substitutions in the D1/D2 regions of the LSU rRNA gene, and 10.3 and 12.6% nucleotide substitutions in the ITS regions, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis based on the concatenated sequences of the ITS and the D1/D2 regions confirmed that the three strains represented a distinct anamorphic species in the Clavispora clade. Therefore, the three strains were described as a novel species, for which we propose the name Candida xylosifermentans sp. nov.