CANDIDA FRAGI, A NEW SPECIES OF ANAMORPHIC YEAST ISOLATED FROM FERMENTING STRAWBERRY

A new anamorphic yeast species, Candida fragi Suzuki, Nakase et Fukazawa, is proposed for a strain isolated from fermenting strawberry that was formerly identified as C. sake, or C. natalensis. Candida fragi resembles C. natalensis. C. oleophila, and C. sake but is clearly differentiated from these species by DNA-DNA relatedness, electrophoretic enzyme patterns, and the proton magnetic resonance spectra of cell wall mannans. Practically, C. fragi is distinguished from C. natalensis by its inability to assimilate trehalose, mannoheptulose, and DL-glyceraldehyde; from C. sake by its inability to assimilate trehalose and α-methyl-D-glucoside and its ability to assimilate 5-ketogluconic acid and xylitol; and from C. oleophila by its inability to assimilate trehalose, to ferment galactose, and to grow in 100ppm of cycloheximide.