Identification of yeasts by RFLP analysis of the 5.8S rRNA gene and the two ribosomal internal transcribed spacers

The identification and classification of yeasts have traditionally been bas ed on morphological. physiological and biochemical traits. Various kits hav e been developed as rapid systems for yeast identification, but mostly for clinical diagnosis. In recent years, different molecular biology techniques have beers developed for yeast identification, but there is no available d atabase to identify a large number of species. In the present study, the re striction patterns generated from the region spanning the internal transcri bed spacers (ITS1 and ITS2) and the 5.8S rRNA gene were used to identify a total of 132 yeast species belonging to 25 different genera, including tele omorphic and anamorphic ascomycetous and basidiomycetous yeasts. In many ca ses, the size of the PCR products and the restriction patterns obtained wit h endonucleases CfoI, HaeIII and HinfI yielded a unique profile for each sp ecies. Accordingly, the use of this molecular approach is proposed as a new rapid and easy method of routine yeast identification.