Blastobotrys illinoisensis, an Unrecorded Anamorphic Yeast Strain Isolated from the Gut of the Earthworm Eisenia fetida

Ji Yun  Son1   Myung Kyum  Kim1,*   

1Department of Bio & Environmental Technology, College of Natural Science, Seoul Women’s University, Seoul 01797, Korea

Abstract

Strain E4, an unrecorded species of dimorphic fungi, was isolated from the gut of earthworms collected in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. Nucleotide sequence analysis of the D1/D2 region of the large subunit (LSU) rRNA gene and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region revealed that this species is a member of the genus Blastobotrys, Blastobotrys illinoisensis. Strain E4 differed from its closest known species, B. mokoenaii and B. malaysiensis, by harboring 3-5 and 12-14 nucleotide substitutions in the D1/D2 and ITS regions, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis based on concatenated sequences of the D1/D2 region of the LSU rRNA gene and the ITS region also indicated that strain E4 belongs to the Blastobotrys clade and is distinct from other related species in the clade. The previously unreported isolate could be distinguished from closely related species by its inability to ferment carbon sources. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the isolation of Blastobotrys species from the gut of earthworms in Korea. The strain used was E4 (=KCTC 27831=JCM 33428).

Figures & Tables

Fig. 1. Phylogenetic placement of Blastobotrys illinoisensis E4 and related species using the neighborjoining method and maximum-likelihood analysis of concatenated sequences of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and the D1/D2 region of the large subunit (LSU) rRNA gene. Yamadazyma endophytica DMKU-CE23 was used as the out-group species. Bootstrap values based on 1,000 replications are shown at the branch nodes. Ba,r 0.01 substitutions per nucleotide position