identification of rhodotorula species isolated from apple, using molecular techniques

some yeast species play important roles in biological control of some fruits’ post harvest infections. for instant, candida, rhodotorula and pichia species employed in biological control of such post harvest diseases as blue mold (penicillium expansum), and also grey mold (botrytis mali) in apple. species identification of yeasts is some most essential part of the related research activities. due to various problems arising in the routine processes of morphological and physiological identification techniques, dna- based methods have recently been constructively developed. in the present study 32 yeast strains were isolated from several apple cultivars. the its1 and its2 regions of the isolates were separately amplified and the isolates grouped as based on fragment size polymorphism (fsp) of the amplicons. based upon a comparison of the electrophoretic patterns of pcr products with rhodotorula mucilaginosa, obtained from cbs as a standard, the isolates’ species were identified as rhodotorula. for a precise final identification, the its-pcr products were subjected to sequencing followed by blast analysis. as a result, four isolates were detected as belonging to rhodotorula genus from which three were identified as r. musilaginosa while one as r. glutinis. it becomes evident that the method pcr- fsp in combination with some other approaches is helpful in identification of rhodotorula species.