Candida kunwiensis sp. nov., a yeast associated with flowers and bumblebees

1 Korean Collection for Type Cultures, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience & Biotechnology, no. 52, Oun-dong, Yusong, Taejon 305-333, Republic of Korea 2 Plant Ecology, Department of Biology, Philipps University, Marburg, Karl-von-Frisch-Straße, 35043 Marburg, Germany 3 Department of Plant Sciences, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5B7 Correspondence Kyung Sook Bae ksbae{at}mail.kribb.re.kr A novel asexual ascomycetous yeast, Candida kunwiensis (SG99-26 T =KCTC 17041 T =CBS 9067 T ), was isolated from sweet potato ( Ipomoea batatas ) flowers in Korea and from the body surface of pollinating bumblebees in Germany. Comparative analysis of the D1/D2 domain of 26S rDNA of all available sequences for ascomycetous yeasts showed that the novel species was phylogenetically related to the genus Metschnikowia , but the sequence similarity was low. Morphologically and physiologically, C. kunwiensis in many ways resembles Metschnikowia pulcherrima , but can be distinguished from this species by its ability to assimilate lactic acid and its inability to produce pulcherrimin. The GenBank accession number for the partial 26S rDNA sequence of Candida kunwiensis SG99-26 T is AF389527 .