A taxonomic study of the basidiomycetous yeast genera Rhodosporidium banno and Rhodotorula harrison based on whole-cell protein patterns, DNA base compositions and coenzyme Q types.

Abstract

A numerical analysis was performed on one-dimensional whole-cell protein electrophoretic fingerprints of 107 strains belonging to the basidiomycetous yeast genera Rhodosporidium and Rhodotorula. This technique allowed evaluation of taxonomic relationships at the species level. In particular for the anamorphic genus Rhodotorula, the electrophoretic groupings did not correspond in all cases with the existing species. Heterogeneity of strains within the anamorphic species Rhodotorula acheniorum, RtR aurantiaca, RtR araucariae, RtR foliorum, RtR glutinis, RtR graminis and Rt. minuta was found. There was a good correlation between the grouping obtained by numerical analysis of protein patterns, the mol% G + C content and the coenzyme Q type. Furthermore, the results obtained with the different techniques used suggest possible close interspecific and/or intergeneric relationships. Most Rhodotorula glutinis strains, including the type strain, and the type strain of Rhodotorula graminis were highly similar to strains of Rhodosporidium diobovatum. For other investigated strains of Rhodotorula glutinis, a high similarity was found with strains of Rhodosporidium kratochvilovae, Rs. sphaerocarpum, Rs. toruloides and Rhodotorula mucilaginosa, respectively. Most of the Rhodotorula graminis strains could not be differentiated from Rhodosporidium paludigenum strains.

Reinstatement of (Castelli) Lodder and Shifrine & Phaff, former synonyms of (Saito) Lodder

“…These authors found that the type strains of each species belonged to di¡erent clusters in a dendrogram resulting from the analysis of the SDS^PAGE pro¢les : the type strain of R. aurantiaca clustered with CBS 8074, a strain isolated from a leaf of Callistemon viminalis in Australia; the type strain of R. colostri clustered with CBS 2201, a strain deposited in the CBS by Montemartini (a possible subculture of Castelli's original isolate [2]); and the type strain of R. crocea clustered with CBS 5950, a strain isolated from Bantu beer in South Africa. The same authors presented data on the major ubiquinone (CoQ) and the molar content of G+C of genomic DNA for the same strains, which supported the observed clustering based on the whole-cell protein pro¢les [5]. More recently, studies based on the analysis of nucleotide sequences of di¡erent rDNA regions [6^8] demonstrated the phylogenetic a⁄liation of R. aurantiaca to the so-called 'Erythrobasidium lineage' of the Urediniomycetes, a well-supported clade which contains other deeply pigmented species in the genera Rhodotorula and Sporobolomyces as well as a few teleomorphic taxa, e.g.…”

“…This physiological heterogeneity had already been mentioned by Pha¡ and Ahearn who reported di¡erent results for the assimilation of 5-keto-gluconate: positive for the type cultures of R. aurantiaca and R. crocea and negative for the type of R. colostri [2]. Additional di¡erences between the three species were reported by Vancanneyt and co-workers based on whole-cell protein pro¢les [5]. These authors found that the type strains of each species belonged to di¡erent clusters in a dendrogram resulting from the analysis of the SDS^PAGE pro¢les : the type strain of R. aurantiaca clustered with CBS 8074, a strain isolated from a leaf of Callistemon viminalis in Australia; the type strain of R. colostri clustered with CBS 2201, a strain deposited in the CBS by Montemartini (a possible subculture of Castelli's original isolate [2]); and the type strain of R. crocea clustered with CBS 5950, a strain isolated from Bantu beer in South Africa.…”

“…However, the type strains of R. colostri and R. crocea were not included in those studies and their phylogenetic position remains uncertain. Here we report the determination of the nucleotide sequences of the D1/D2 domains of the 26S rRNA gene of the above-mentioned strains studied by Vancanneyt et al [5] in order to re-assess the taxonomic status of the R. aurantiaca synonyms.…”

Polyphasic taxonomy of the basidiomycetous yeast genus Rhodosporidium: Rhodosporidium kratochvilovae and related anamorphic species.

“…Besides the two self-sporulating strains (IGC 4583 T and IGC 5579) reported in the original description, the Rhodosporidium kratochvilovae cluster contained a recent isolate of a self-sporulating Rhodosporidium sp. (IGC 4793), two strains considered as anamorphs of Rhodosporidium kratochvilovae (IGC 4883 and IGC 5580), two other strains (IGC 5591 and IGC 5606) reported as related to the type strain of Rhodosporidium kratochvilovae based on the analysis of whole-cell protein patterns (Vancanneyt et al, 1992), the two above-mentioned sexually compatible strains (IGC 4818 and IGC 4819), and IGC 4776, IGC 4778, IGC 4785 and IGC 4787, which had been previously identified as Rhodotorula glutinis (Sampaio & Fonseca, 1995). A similar delimitation of the Rhodosporidium …”

Evolutionary relationships of members of the genera Taphrina, Protomyces, Schizosaccharomyces, and related taxa within the archiascomycetes: Integrated analysis of genotypic and phenotypic characters

“…Determination of nuclear DNA base composition The cells were grown in 5-liter flasks containing 1.5 liter of YM broth medium under shaking at 27~ for 30 to 48 h. Then cells were harvested by centrifugation and washed twice with distilled water. The DNA was isolated and purified according to the isolation method of genomic DNAs using benzyl chloride (Vancanneyt et al, 1992), followed by ultracentrifugation (Beckman TL-100) for 16 to 18h to obtain genomic DNAs. DNA base composition was calculated from the relative peak areas of nucleosides on a high-performance liquid chromatogram (Mesbah et al, 1989).…”