CANDIDA AQUAETEXTORIS SP-NOV, A NEW SPECIES OF YEAST OCCURRING IN SLUDGE FROM A TEXTILE-INDUSTRY WASTE-WATER TREATMENT-PLANT IN TUSCANY, ITALY

We describe Candida aquaetextoris, a new yeast species isolated from s ludge that accumulates at the main wastewater treatment facility which processes discharges from textile factories located in the Prate metr opolitan district, northern Tuscany, Italy. This yeast degrades 4-(1-n onyl)phenol, a toxic intermediate originating from the microbial attac k of nonylphenol polyethoxylates, which are nonionic surfactants large ly used in leather and textile industries. In the investigation we emp loyed conventional and molecular taxonomy techniques to compare the ne w isolate to strains of physiologically similar species, such as Candi da maltosa and Candida tropicalis, as well as strains of quite phenoty pically different species, such as Candida haemulonii. The results dem onstrate that the yeast which we identified represents a separate taxo n, The type strain of C. aquaetextoris is strain Lmar1, which has been deposited in the Industrial Yeast Collection of the Division of Appli ed Microbiology, Department of Plant Biology, University of Perugia, P erugia, Italy, as strain DBVPG 6732.