Trichosporon heliocopridis sp. nov., a urease-negative basidiomycetous yeast associated with dung beetles (Heliocopris bucephalus Fabricius)

Ninety-six yeast isolates associated with dung beetles (Heliocopris bucephalus Fabricius) were examined based on a culture-dependent method. A comparison of the colony morphology and PCR-fingerprints obtained by (GTG)5 microsatellite-primed PCR indicated that 84 of these isolates belonged to one group. Five strains (DD1-1T, DD2-33, DD4-11, DD5-15 and DD6-1) were selected as the representatives of this main group, where each of the five selected strains had been derived from a different dung beetle collected in northern Thailand. A comparison of the D1/D2 domain sequence of the large subunit rRNA gene (LSU D1/D2) and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences revealed that these five strains were the same and were related to the genus Trichosporon. Phylogenetic analysis based on the LSU D1/D2 plus ITS sequences placed this group within the Trichosporon brassicae clade, but it was clearly separated from any known species. In addition, physiological tests showed that this group had the unusual property of the inability to hydrolyse urea, which was distinctly different from the related taxon. Therefore a novel yeast species named Trichosporon heliocopridis sp. nov. (ex-type strain DD1-1T=TISTR 5946T=JCM 30786T=CBS 14168T) is proposed. The MycoBank number is MB812098. © 2016, Microbiology Society. All rights reserved.