Abstract

The purpose of this study is to isolate and identify wild yeasts from Apis mellifera and Citrus sunki samples collected in Okcheon-gun and Jeju-si, Republic of Korea. Among ten strains, one strain had been previously reported, but nine strains were unreported in the Republic of Korea. To identify the wild yeast strains, pairwise sequence comparisons of the D1/D2 region of the 26S rRNA gene sequence were conducted using the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) (Fell et al., 2000). Cell morphologies were observed using a phase contrast microscope, and assimilation tests were performed using the API 20C AUX kit. The two unrecorded yeast strains, MBEE-1 and MMD-1, belong to the genus Starmerella (family Saccharomycetales incertae sedis, Order Saccharomycetales, Class Saccharomycetes) and the genus Symmetrospora (family Symmetrosporaceae, Order Cystobasidiomycetes incertae sedis, Class Cystobasidiomycetes), respectively. Both strains had oval-shaped and polar budding cells. This research elucidated the morphological and biochemical properties of these two previously unreported yeast species in Korea.