Taxonomic Study on Six Yeast Species Unlisted in the National Species List of Korea

Abstract

More than five hundreds of yeast species (including 9 variants) encompassing 142 genera and 48 classes of 2 phyla exist in Korea. However, only 173 species have been cataloged in the National Species List of Korea (NSLK), the backbone reference to claim sovereign rights over biological resources, as of December 2021, due to the lack of taxonomic descriptions, although some of these species are extensively used in industry. The present pilot study investigated the taxonomy of strains belonging to the six most widely used or frequently isolated yeast species (Meyeromyma guilliermondii, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Saccharomycopsis fibuligera, Wickerhamomyces anomalus, Candida tropicalis, and Papiliotrema flavescens) to include these species in the NSLK. Strains with diverse habitats and geographic origins were retrieved from the National Institute of Biological Resources culture collection. These strains clustered in the same clade as the type strains of the designated species according to phylogenetic analysis of the D1/D2 sequences. Moreover, we described the cell morphology and physiological characteristics of representative strains of each species. This study suggests that these six species are indigenous to Korea and can be accordingly listed in the NSLK