Allodekkera sacchari gen. nov., sp. nov., a yeast species in the Saccharomycetales isolated from a sugar factory.

Three yeast isolates, G5-5(5)T, G5-9(3) and G5-9(4), were obtained from the sugar cane juice and waste from sugar production plant (Korach Industry Co., Ltd) in Korach province, Thailand. They were found to belong to the same species based on DNA sequence identity of the small subunit ribosomal RNA gene (SSU) and the D1/D2 region of the large subunit rRNA gene (LSU D1/D2). A blastn search of the GenBank database revealed they had 93 % nucleotide sequence identity to Dekkera bruxellensis for the SSU (1742 bp), but their LSU D1/D2 sequence (572 bp) showed less than 90 % identity to all available sequences in the database. Phylogenetic analyses with neighbour-joining and maximum-parsimony methods using the aligned LSU D1/D2 and SSU sequences (a total of 2072 positions after removal of gaps) inferred that the three isolates were separated from all known taxa in the Saccharomycetales, and that the neighbouring taxa were species of Dekkera/Brettanomyces. Physiological and biochemical characters revealed distinct differences between the three isolates and Dekkera/Brettanomyces species, including the ability to assimilate several carbon sources and inability to ferment glucose. Thus, isolates G5-5(5)T, G5-9(3) and G5-9(4) should be assigned to a novel taxon, for which the name Allodekkera sacchari gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of the type species is G5-5(5)T (=CBS 14167T=JCM 18455T=TISTR 5950T), with MycoBank number MB815477 (for the genus) and MB817751 (for the species). Two additional strains of the species are G5-9(3) (=JCM 18456) and G5-9(4) (=JCM 18457).