Rhodotorula pacifica sp. nov., a novel yeast species from sediment collected on the deep-sea floor of the north-west Pacific Ocean

1 Extremobiosphere Research Center, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), 2-15 Natsushima-cho, Yokosuka 237-0061, Japan 2 Department of Life Sciences, School of Agriculture, Meiji University, 1-1 Higashi Mita, Tama-ku, Kawasaki 214-8571, Japan Correspondence Takahiko Nagahama nagahama{at}jamstec.go.jp A novel species of the genus Rhodotorula was isolated from sediments collected on the deep-sea floor in the north-west Pacific Ocean. Strains SY-96 T , isolated from the Yap Trench, and SY-246, isolated from the Iheya Ridge, had almost identical nucleotide sequences for their internal transcribed spacers and their 5·8S rDNA. Their physiological characteristics were also almost identical. The strains were assumed to be related to Rhodotorula mucilaginosa and Rhodotorula dairenensis based on sequence similarities in the D1/D2 region of the 26S rDNA. The low DNA–DNA relatedness and sequence similarity between strain SY-96 T and related species revealed that strains SY-96 T and SY-246 represent a hitherto unknown species. As ballistoconidia and sexual reproduction were not observed in strains SY-96 T and SY-246, these strains are described as Rhodotorula pacifica sp. nov. The type strain is SY-96 T (=JCM 10908 T =CBS 10070 T ). Abbreviations: ITS, internal transcribed spacer; ML, maximum-likelihood; TBR, tree bisection-reconnection Published online ahead of print on 9 September 2005 as DOI 10.1099/ijs.0.63584-0. The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession numbers for the 26S rDNA D1/D2 domain, the internal transcribed spacer and the 5·8S rDNA gene sequences of Rhodotorula pacifica sp. nov. strains SY-96 T and SY-246 are AB026006 and AB193175 , respectively.