IDENTIFICATION AND PHYLOGENY OF SOME SPECIES OF THE GENERA SporidioboluS AND rhodotorula USING ANALYSIS OF THE 5.8S RDNA GENE AND TWO RIBOSOMAL INTERNAL TRANSCRIBED SPACERS

Due to the problems encountered in routine morphological and physiological procedures that are used in yeast identification, DNA-based methods have recently been developed. In the present study, l66 yeast strains were isolated from several apple and citrus cultivars. After analysis by basic morphological methods, the ITS1 and ITS2 regions of the isolates were amplified separately, and the isolates were grouped based on fragment size polymorphism (FSP) of the amplicons. By comparing the electrophoretic patterns of the PCR products with Rhodotorula mucilaginosa, species were identified as Rhodotorula. For precise and final identification, the ITS-PCR products were subjected to sequencing followed by Blast analysis. As a result, eight isolates were identified as belonging to the Rhodotorula genus, of which five were identified as R. mucilaginosa and three as R. glutinis, and one as a Sporidiobolus. We conclude that the method PCR-FSP, in combination with other approaches, is useful for the identification of yeast species.