The Coenzyme Q System in Strains of Species in the Genus Itersonilia, Sporobolomycetaceae1

Since the genus Itersonilia was established as a fourth genus in the family Sporobolomycetaceae by DERx (1), three species have been described. The type species is I. perplexans Derx, which was first isolated from an infected leaf of Althea rosea (1). A second species, I. pyriformis Nyland was isolated from leaves of Acer macrophyllum (2). A third species, I. pastinacae Channon was reported (3). In a previous paper (4), one of the authors (Y.Y.) reported the Co-Q system of some yeasts and yeast-like fungi including strains of species of the genera Bullera Derx, Tilletiopsis Nyland, and Itersonilia Derx in the family Sporobolomycetaceae. This paper is concerned with a further investigation of the Co-Q system in strains of Itersonilia species. Four strains of 1. perplexans, I. pyriformis, and I. pastinacae were used in this experiment (Table 1). Microorganisms were cultured on agar plates containing 3 % glucose, 0.5 % peptone, and 0.5 % yeast extract, pH 6.0, at 20° for 5 days. Harvests of yeast-like fungus cells were done by scraping mycelia off the agar plates, followed by centrifugation. Coenzyme Q or ubiquinone was extracted from the cells and purified as described previously (5). The Co-Q system was determined by reversed phase paper chromatography (5). As shown in Table 1, all four strains examined of Itersonilia species had the Q-9 system, differing from strains of species of the genera Sporobolomyces Nyland et van Niel, Bullera, and Tilletiopsis in the family Sporobolomycetaceae (Q-10) (4-6). These four strains revealed a single spot corresponding to Q-9 on paper chromatograms. Previously, one of the authors (Y.Y.) examined only one 1 This constitutes Part XI of a series entitled "Significance of the Coenzyme Q System in