Candida asiatica sp. nov., an anamorphic ascomycetous yeast species isolated from natural samples from Thailand, Taiwan, and Japan

Six yeast strains of a novel anamorphic yeast species were isolated from natural samples collected in Thailand (RV60T and LYSM9), Taiwan (SC5L04 and GE19S05), and Japan (JCM 11058 and JCM 11059). Analysis of the D1/D2 domain of the large subunit rRNA gene sequences revealed that the sequences of five strains (LYSM9, SC5L04, GE19S05, JCM 11058, and JCM 11059) were identical and differed from the sequence of strain RV60T by only one nucleotide substitution. The closest recognized species in terms of pairwise sequence similarity was Candida abiesophila, but the level of nucleotide substitution (14.2–14.3%) was sufficient to justify the description of a separate species. Phenotypic characteristics of the six strains were almost the same except for two strains from Japan, which showed the ability to ferment glucose and grew in the presence of 10% NaCl and 5% glucose while the others did not. The phenotypic characteristics of the six strains included proliferation by multilateral budding, absence of ascospores, arthrospores, and ballistospores, and negative Diazonium blue B and urease tests. The major ubiquinone was Q-7. On the basis of the above findings, the six strains were assigned to a single novel species of Candida, for which the name Candida asiatica sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is RV60T (BCC 25966T = NBRC 103863T = CBS 10863T).