Candida northwykensis sp. nov., A Novel Yeast Isolated from the Gut of the Click Beetle Melanotus villosus

Abstract

Two yeast morphotypes, BET 4(T) and BET 7, were isolated from the gut of click beetle Melanotus villosus. Click beetles were collected from the decaying timber within the woodlands of North Wyke Research, South West England, UK (latitude, 50°46'29″N; longitude, 3°55'23″W). Morphotype BET 7 was identified as Debaryomyces hansenii, and the other morphotype, BET 4(T), was found to differ from Priceomyces castillae and Priceomyces haplophilus, its closest phylogenetic neighbours, by 5.0% with respect to the nucleotide sequence of the D1/D2 domain of the large-subunit (LSU) rRNA gene, and by 8.0% with respect to the ribosomal internal-transcribed spacer (ITS) region. BET 4(T) also differ from P. castillae and P. haplophilus in a number of different phenotypic characteristics. Thus, based on the unique nucleotide sequences of its D1/D2 domain and ITS region, its physiological characteristics and an inability to sporulate, strain BET 4(T) is assigned the status of a new species of Candida, for which the name Candida northwykensis sp. nov., is proposed. The type strain is BET 4(T) (NCYC 3525(T) = CBS 11370(T)).

Yeast‐insect associations: It takes guts

“…The species found in flower beetles intestines (Fig. ) included Nakazawaea holstii (Jones, Dowd, & Blackwell, ; Rivera et al, ), Candida fermentati (the anamorph of Meyerozyma caribbica ) (Nguyen, Suh, & Blackwell, ; Suh & Blackwell, ), Candida nitratophila (Leufvén, Bergström, & Falsen, ; Lou, Lu, & Sun, ), C. piceae(Lou et al, ; Rivera et al, ) ( Ogataea clade), C. oregonensis ( Clavispora clade), C. rhagii ( Hyphopichia clade) (Jones et al, ; Jurzitza, Kühlwein, & Kreger‐van Rij, ), Yamadazyma tenuis , C. sinolaborantium , C. temnochilae ( Yamadazyma clade) (Ravella et al, ; Suh, Nguyen, & Blackwell, ), C. parapsilosis ( Lodderomyces‐Spathaspora clade) and C. carpophila ( Meyerozyma clade) (Jones et al, ; Molnár et al, ). In addition, yeasts of other genera have been also found associated with flower beetles: Kuraishia capsulata (Leufvén et al, ; Shifrine & Phaff, ), Meyerozyma guillermondii(Molnár et al, ; Rivera et al, ) and Torulopsis buchneri ( Symbiotaphrina buchneri ) (Bismanis, ; Grabner, ).…”

Efficient production of second generation ethanol and xylitol by yeasts from Amazonian beetles (Coleoptera) and their galleries

“…Ascomycetic yeasts that both ferment and assimilate xylose have been associated with insects that feed on decaying wood (Young et al, 2010;Ravella et al, 2011;Tao et al, 2011). Here the xylose assimilation capacity of 792 yeasts isolated from the gut of beetles and their galleries were tested.…”

“…After dissection, the large gut of the insects was cut into three parts with a sterile scalpel and crushed with a clamp into sterile microtubes containing 100 μL of saline solution, and this was spread on acidified YM agar (modified from Ravella et al, 2011). The cultures were incubated at 30°C for five days.…”