MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION AND APPLICATION OF RANDOM AMPLIFIED POLYMORPHIC DNA ANALYSIS OF MRAKIA AND STERIGMATOMYCES SPECIES

The qualitative and quantitative monosaccharide spectra of purified ye ast cell walls revealed that there are three phylogenetically distinct lineages of sterigma-forming basidiomycetous yeasts: (i) Kurtzmanomyc es and Sterigmatomyces species, which contain high levels of mannose; (ii) Tilletiopsis species, which contain glucose, galactose, and small amounts of mannose; and (iii) Fellomyces, Kockovaella, Sterigmatospor idium, and Tsuchiyaea species, which appear to be closely related on t he basis of their high levels of glucose and the presence of xylose. T he yeast cell wall neutral sugars of Sporobolomyces antarcticus and St erigmatomyces aphidis were similar to those of members of the genus Ti lletiopsis. However, the possibility that these taxa are conspecific w as eliminated by the results of a random amplified polymorphic DNA (RA PD) analysis. The conspecificity of Mrakia frigida and Mrakia nivalis, the conspecificity of Mrakia gelida and Mrakia stokesii, and the cons pecificity of Sterigmatomyces halophilus and Sterigmatomyces indicus w ere confirmed by RAPE analysis results. RAPD analysis was found to be a simple and highly sensitive method which can be used to differentiat e species at the DNA level; it can replace nuclear DNA-nuclear DNA hyb ridization experiments for species identification, characterization, a nd delimitation.