Abstract

The purpose of this study was to isolate and identify wild yeasts from the soil collected in Gwangju and Pocheon City, Gyeonggi Province, Republic of Korea. Among 10 strains, six strains were already reported, but four strains were unrecorded in Republic of Korea. To identify wild yeast strains, pairwise sequence comparisons of the D1/D2 region of the 26S rRNA gene sequence were performed using Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST). The cell morphologies were observed by phase contrast microscope and assimilation tests were carried out using API 20C AUX kit. The 10 strains were assigned to the phyla Basidiomycota (8 strains) and Ascomycota (2strains). The unrecorded four yeast strains, NH33, NH19, NH20, and YP416, belong to the phylum Basidiomycota and the genera Buckleyzyma, Leucosporidium, Holtermanniales, and Mrakia, respectively. All strains had oval-shaped and polar budding cells. In this research, the morphological and biochemical properties of four unreported yeast species were characterized intensively, which were not officially reported in Korea