Systematic study of basidiomycetous yeasts - evaluation of the ITS regions of rDNA to delimit species of the genus Rhodosporidium.

Nucleotide sequences of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions were determined to establish the guidelines for species identification in the genus Rhodosporidium. Forty-two strains of nine species of the genus Rhodosporidium were used for ITS (ITS1 and ITS2) analysis. Intraspecific length polymorphisms and sequence variations were observed within R. azoricum, R. diobovatum, R. paludigenum, R. sphaerocarpum and R. toruloides, while no variation was observed within R. babjevae and R. kratochvilovae. Based on comparison of the levels of intraspecific and interspecific sequence similarity, strains with identical sequences were considered to represent a single species and strains with 92% or lower similarity of ITS sequences were considered to be distinct species in the genus Rhodosporidium.