Papiliotrema siamense f.a., sp. nov., a yeast species isolated from plant leaves.

Two strains representing a novel species were isolated from the external surface of a sugar cane leaf (DMKU-SP85(T)) and tissue of a rice leaf (DMKU-RE97) collected in Thailand. On the basis of morphological, biochemical, physiological and chemotaxonomic characteristics, and sequence analysis of the D1/D2 region of the large subunit (LSU) rRNA gene and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, the two strains were determined to represent a novel species of the genus Papiliotrema although sexual reproduction was not observed. The sequences of the D1/D2 region of the LSU rRNA gene and ITS region of the two strains were identical, but differed from those of the type strain of Cryptococcus nemorosus by 0.6 % nucleotide substitutions (four nucleotide substitutions out of 597 nucleotides) in the D1/D2 region of the LSU rRNA gene and 1.8 % nucleotide substitutions (nine nucleotide substitutions out of 499 nucleotides) in the ITS region. The name Papiliotrema siamense f.a., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is DMKU-SP85(T)( = BCC 69499(T) = CBS 13330(T)).