Characterization of yeast isolates originating from Hungarian dairy products using traditional and molecular identification techniques.

Yeast isolates collected from various Hungarian dairy products were identified using simplified identification system (SIM) and restriction fragment analysis of PCR-amplified 18S rDNA with the neighbouring ITS1 region (ITS-PCR; ribotyping). The isolates were grouped into 26 species; Geotrichum candidum, Debaryomyces hansenii, Yarrowia lipolytica, Kluyveromyces lactis and Candida catenulata were found as the predominant species. SIM and ITS-PCR proved to be useful and convenient taxonomic tools for rapid identification at species level. Two most frequent species, G. candidum and D. hansenii, were further characterized by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD-PCR) analysis. RAPD-PCR using M13 primer resulted in discrimination between most strains of the same species and allowed a certain degree of intraspecific typing.