Yeast Communities in Sugarcane Phylloplane

The study aimed to investigate yeast communities in sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum Linn.) phylloplane in Thailand by a culture-dependent approach using a direct isolation method; namely, plating of leaf washing for yeast isolation. A total of 150 yeast strains were obtained from 79 sugarcane leaf samples collected in ten provinces. Identification on the basis of the D1/D2 region of the large subunit (LSU) rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed that 126 yeast strains (84%) were identified to be yeast in the phylum Basidiomycota and 24 strains (16%) were in the phylum Ascomycota. Basidiomycetous yeast consisted of 27 known species in 18 genera viz. Cystobasidium, Dioszegia, Dirkmeia, Hannaella, Jaminaea, Kwoniella, Langdonia, Moesziomyces, Occultifur, Papiliotrema, Piskurozyma, Pseudozyma, Rhodosporidiobolus, Rhodotorula, Saitozyma, Sporobolomyces, Symmetrospora and Tremella, whereas, ascomycetous yeast consisted of three species viz. Candida parapsilosis, Kodamaea ohmeri and Meyerozyma caribbica. In addition, the most common known yeast species detected were Dirkmeia churashimaensis with relative frequency and frequency of occurrence of 12.0 and 22.8%, respectively. Subsequently, seven strains were found to be five new yeast species, which were already proposed as Kalmanozyma vetiver, Wickerhamiella siamensis, Papiliotrema siamense, Hannaella phyllophila and Occultifur tropicalis. The results of this study revealed a higher number of yeast strains and species in the phylum Basidiomycota, which agreed with other reports. However, the present results are opposite to those of our previous study when the enrichment technique was used for yeast isolation.