Abstract
Three yeast isolates representing a novel psychrotolerant yeast species were recovered from soil collected in Mohe City, Heilongjiang Province, PR China. The phylogenetic analyses based on the D1/D2 domains of the LSU rRNA and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region showed that the new yeast formed a well-supported clade closely related to
Chrysozyma sorbariae
CGMCC 2.2768
T
. However, the new isolate differed from
C. sorbariae
CGMCC 2.2768
T
by 8.15% sequence divergence (30 nt differences and 23 gaps out of 650 bp) in the ITS region and by 2.16% sequence divergence (9 substitutions and 4 indels over 603 bp) in the D1/D2 domain, respectively. In contrast to
C. sorbariae
, the novel yeast species was able to assimilate soluble starch,
d
-xylose,
d
-ribose, glycerol, succinate, myo-inositol and ethylamine hydrochloride but was unable to assimilate maltose, melezitose, inulin,
d
-mannitol,
d
-glucitol, ammonium sulphate and potassium nitrate. On the basis of these findings, the name
Chrysozyma moheensis
sp. nov. is proposed to accommodate strains 15A5, 13A5 and 13A6, with CCTCC AF 2021079
T
(MycoBank no.: MB842231) designated as the holotype.