The expanding realm of ballistosporous yeasts

Takashi Nakase's last tweet: what is the current direction of microbial taxonomy research?

During the last few decades, type strains of most yeast species have been barcoded using the D1/D2 domain of their LSU rRNA gene and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. Species identification using DNA sequences regarding conspecificity in yeasts has also been studied. Most yeast species can be identified according to the sequence divergence of their ITS region or a combination of the D1/D2 and ITS regions. Studies that have examined intraspecific diversity have used multilocus sequence analyses, whereas the marker regions used in this analysis vary depending upon taxa. D1/D2 domain and ITS region sequences have been used as barcodes to develop primers suitable for the detection of the biological diversity of environmental DNA and the microbiome. Using these barcode sequences, it is possible to identify relative lineages and infer their gene products and function, and how they adapt to their environment. If barcode sequence was not variable enough to identify a described species, one could investigate the other biological traits of these yeasts, considering geological distance, environmental circumstances and isolation of reproduction. This article is dedicated to late Dr Takashi Nakase (1939-2018).

Expanding world of ballistosporous yeasts: Distribution in the phyllosphere, systematics and phylogeny

Ecological and systematic aspects of ballistosporous yeasts inhabiting the phyllosphere of the Asia-Pacific region were reviewed in the light of recent advances. In the past 20 years, the extensive isolation studies of ballistosporous yeasts were carried out in the Asia-Pacific region, and the following new species were found in the phyllosphere of the main island of Japan, of the Ogasawara Islands in the Pacific Ocean, and of Thailand, New Zealand, and the Yunnan Province of China: Bensingtonia ingoldii, B. intermedia, B. miscanthi, B. naganoensis, B. musae, B. sakaguchii, B. subrosea, B. thailandica, and B. yamatoana; Bullera boninensis, B. coprosmaensis, B. hannae, B. huiaensis, B. miyagiana, B. mrakii, B. oryzae, B. penniseticola, B. pseudoalba, B. schimicola, B. sinensis, B. unica, B. variabilis, and B. waltii; Kockovaella imperatae, K. machilophila, K. phaffii, K. sacchari, K. schimae, and K. thailandica; Sporobolomyces blumeae, S. coprosmae, S. coprosmicola, S. dimmenae, S. draycophyllus, S. falcatus, S. griseoflavus, S. inositophilus, S. lactophilus, S. linderae, S. novazealandicus, S. nylandii, S. oryzicola, S. poonsookiae, S. ruber, S. sasicola, S. subbrunneus, S. taupoensis, S. vermiculatus, S. xanthus, and S. yunnanensis; and Udeniomyces megalosporus. Yeast species containing Q-10(H(2)), a monohydrated ubiquinone, have long been considered to be rare yeasts; however, these yeasts were proved to be common in the tropical and subtropical phyllosphere of Asia. The chemotaxonomic and molecular phylogenetic studies based on the sequence analysis of 18S rDNA revealed the heterogeneity of ballistosporous yeasts, which comprised species with polyphyletic phylogenetic origins. A new phylogenetic cluster, Subbrunneus, was newly found in the class Urediniomycetes as the fifth phylogenetical cluster of this class, based on the analysis of 18S rDNA sequences. The Subbrunneus cluster comprises four ballistosporous yeast species found in the phyllosphere of Japan and New Zealand. The future perspectives of basidiomycetous yeast systematics are discussed.

Three new species of Kockovaella isolated from plants collected in the Ogasawara Islands

Five strains of unknown ballistoconidiogenous yeasts, which were isolated from plant leaves collected in the Ogasawara Islands, Japan, were taxonomically studied. They represent three different species of the genus Kockovaella based on morphological, physiological and biochemical characteristics, analysis of small subunit ribosomal RNA gene sequences, and DNA-DNA reassociation experiments. Three new species, Kockovaella machilophila (1 strain), Kockovaella phaffii (3 strains) and Kockovaella schimae (1 strain) are proposed for these five strains.