Saccharomyces bacillaris is not a synonym of Candida stellata: reinstatement as Starmerella bacillaris comb. nov.

Torulopsis bacillaris (Kroemer and Krumbholz) Lodder (basionym Saccharomyces bacillaris Kroemer and Krumbholz) was frequently detected in oenological works on yeast ecology conducted in the mid-1950s in different wine regions of the world, before its unification with Torulopsis stellata (Kroemer and Krumbholz) Lodder. Most of the phenotypic characteristics pointed out for T. bacillaris are currently attributed to Candida zemplinina Sipiczki. In the present work isoenzyme profiles and rDNA restriction profiles of the neotype of S. bacillaris from two yeast culture collections (CBS 843 and PYCC 3044) and of the type strain of C. zemplinina (CBS 9494) were determined and similar profiles were detected. Moreover, the sequences of the D1/D2 region of the 26S rRNA gene of the three strains were 100 % identical. Different profiles were observed for the type strain of C. stellata (CBS 157) both for isoenzyme and rDNA restriction analysis and only 91 % similarity was found between the D1/D2 sequence of this strain and that of the neotype of S. bacillaris. In view of the newly obtained data and the fact that all above-mentioned species belong to the Starmerella clade, only distantly related to Candida tropicalis (the type species of the genus), S. bacillaris is hereby reinstated as Starmerella bacillaris comb. nov., with C. zemplinina as an obligate synonym.