GENOTYPIC IDENTIFICATION OF SACCHAROMYCES SPECIES USING RANDOM AMPLIFIED POLYMORPHIC DNA ANALYSIS

According to different molecular approaches the genus Saccharomyces wa s divided recently into 10 genotypically distinct species (S. bayanus, S. castellii, S. cerevisiae, S. dairensis, S. exiguus, S. kluyveri, S . paradoxus, S. pastorianus, S. servazzii, S. unisporus). This was cor roborated by Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA - Polymerase Chain React ion (RAPD-PCR) analysis in the present paper. Thirtytwo strains includ ing the type strains of 20 Saccharomyces species defined originally by phenotypic characteristics (e.g. S. chevalieri, S. diastaticus, S. el lipsoideus) clustered with the pattern of S. cerevisiae, fourteen (e.g . type strains of S. globosus, S. heterogenicus, S. inustiatus) with t he pattern of S. bayanus, six including the type strains of S. carlsbe rgensis and S. monacensis with the pattern of S. pastorianus and two w ith the pattern of S. paradoxus. Two further strains isolated newly we re identified to belong to S. paradoxus. In comparison with nuclear DN A/DNA hybridization or electrophoretic karyotyping, RAPD-PCR anaylsis turned out to be a simple and reliable method to separate Saccharomyce s species at the genotypic level. In contrast to phenotypic characters genotypic identification using RAPD-PCR analysis guarantees species s pecificity if type strains are included in the investigation. The ten Saccharomyces species arising from RAPD-PCR analysis are differentiate d from each other to the maximal extent with exception of the relation ship between S. bayanus and S. pastorianus. In this case, the estimate d similarity value of 45% is significantly higher than the background noise (0-20%), but less than the values within species (83 to 100%).