Zygosaccharomyces favi sp nov., an obligate osmophilic yeast species from bee bread and honey

Five yeast strains representing a hitherto undescribed yeast species were isolated from bee bread and honey in Hungary. They are obligate osmophilic, i.e. they are unable to grow in/on high water activity culture media. Following isogamous conjugation, they form 1-4 spheroid or subspheroid ascospores in persistent asci. The analysis of the sequences of their large subunit rRNA gene D1/D2 domain placed the new species in the Zygosaccharomyces clade. In terms of pairwise sequence similarity, Zygosaccharomyces gambellarensis is the most closely related species. Comparisons of D1/D2, internal transcribed spacer and translation elongation factor-1 alpha (EF-1 alpha) gene sequences of the five strains with that of the type strain of Z. gambellarensis revealed that they represent a new yeast species. The name Zygosaccharomyces favi sp. nov. (type strain: NCAIM Y.01994(T) = CBS 13653(T) = NRRL Y-63719(T) = ZIM 2551(T)) is proposed for this new yeast species, which based on phenotype can be distinguished from related Zygosaccharomyces species by its obligate osmophilic nature. Some intragenomic sequence variability, mainly indels, was detected among the ITS copies of the strains of the new species.