Three new species of Tremellomycetes isolated from maize and northern wild rice.

The present work studied novel basidiomycetous yeasts from maize and northern wild rice plants. From comparisons of ribosomal internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) and large subunit (LSU) (D1 and D2 domains), and subsequent phylogenetic analyses, the following species were resolved and described: Papiliotrema zeae Yurkov & Kurtzman sp. nov. (ex-type cultures DSM 104035, NRRL Y-63980, MB 827356, GenBank MH718306), Solicoccozyma zizaniae Yurkov & Kurtzman sp. nov. (ex-type cultures DSM 104031, NRRL Y-7649, MB 827354, GenBank MH718302) and Vishniacozyma kurtzmanii Yurkov sp. nov. (ex-type cultures DSM 104032, NRRL Y-63981, MB 827355, GenBank MH718303). A search among environmental sequences showed that all three yeasts were previously detected, but not reliably assigned to a genus or clade. Papiliotrema zeae from maize and S. zizaniae from northern wild rice were previously found in agricultural soils under maize and rice, respectively. © FEMS 2019.