WICKERHAMIELLA-AUSTRALIENSIS, WICKERHAMIELLA-CACTICOLA, WICKERHAMIELLA-OCCIDENTALIS, CANDIDA-DROSOPHILAE AND CANDIDA-LIPOPHILA, 5 NEW RELATED YEAST SPECIES FROM FLOWERS AND ASSOCIATED INSECTS

Five new yeast species, Wickerhamiella australiensis, Wickerhamiella c acticola, Wickerhamiella occidentalis, Candida drosophilae and Candida lipophila, are described to accommodate isolates recovered from flowe rs and floricorous insects of Australian Hibiscus trees, cosmopolitan morning glories (Ipomoea spp.) and Brazilian cereoid cacti. The new Wi ckerhamiella species are heterothallic, occur in the haploid condition and are clearly separated reproductively from one another. Although t hey exhibit little physiological variation, they are easily delineated from Wickerhamiella domercqiae, the only species known previously, by their resistance to cycloheximide and the production of strong extrac ellular lipases. C. drosophilae and C. lipophila share the latter prop erty, but unlike the Wickerhamiella species, they fail to utilize nitr ate as sole nitrogen source. PFGE indicates that these yeasts have an unusually low number of chromosomes. The large-subunit rDNA (D1/D2) se quences demonstrate a close relationship between the five species and Candida vanderwaltii and Candida azyma. Their relationship with W. dom ercqiae is more distant, but all share, with some other Candida specie s, a single monophyletic clade. The type and isotype strains are as fo llows: W. australiensis strains UWO(PS)95-604.3(T) (h(+); CBS 8456(T)) and UWO(PS)95-631.3(I) (h(-); CBS 8457(I)); W. cacticola strains UFMG 96-267(T) (h(+); CBS 8454(T)) and UFMG96-381(I) (h(-); CBS 8455(I)); W . occidentalis strains UWO(PS)91-698.4(T) (h(+); CBS 8452(T)) and UFMG 96-212(I) (h(-); CBS 8453(I)); C. drosophilae UWO(PS)91-716.3(T) (CBS 8459(T)); and C. lipophila UWO(PS)91-681.3(T) (CBS 8458(T)).