Identification of yeast by 26S rDNA sequencing

Sequence analysis of D1/D2 region of 26S rDNA was used for the identification of 18 yeast strains, which were isolated from grape, apple, pear, Chinese date, soybean paste, pickle, litchi, orange, dry yeast and hair-powder. Morphological observation of these strains was performed, and DNA extraction and 26S rDNA sequencing after PCR amplification were carried out. The obtained gene sequences were compared with that in Genbank, by sequence homology comparison, the 18 yeast strains were identified as: 5 strains were Saccharomyces cerevisiae, 4 strains were Pichia guilliermondii, 4 strains were Issatchenkia orientails, and others were Issatchenkia terricola, Hanseniaspora uvarum, Zygosaccharomyces rouxii, Metschnikowia pulcherrima, Candida fermentati respectively. The result demonstrated that yeast identification can be achieved at species level by 26S rDNA sequencing, which possessed advantages of being simple and rapid over traditional methods, and was suitable for yeast identification in laboratory as well as industrial production.