Kazachstania taianensis sp. nov., a novel ascomycetous yeast species from orchard soil.

Three teleomorphic ascomycetous yeast isolates (TA11TR-1(T), TA11TR-4 and TA11TR-6) from orchard soil from Tai'an, Shandong province, China, were shown to represent a novel species within the genus Kazachstania based on phenotypic characterization and sequence analyses of the 18S rRNA gene, internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions and 26S rDNA gene D1/D2 domain. The name Kazachstania taianensis sp. nov. (type strain TA11TR-1(T) =AS 2.4160(T) =CBS 11405(T)) is proposed. K. taianensis sp. nov. clustered in a branch together with Kazachstania sinensis, Kazachstania naganishii and the Kazachstania telluris complex with moderate bootstrap support in the neighbour-joining tree reconstructed from combined 18S and D1/D2 sequences. The novel species possessed unusual ITS 1 (338 bp) and ITS 2 (488 bp) sequences. The total length of the ITS-5.8S rDNA gene region of the species was 983 bp, being much longer than those of other ascomycetous yeast species described so far.