A new record of interesting basidiomycetous yeasts from soil in Basrah province/Iraq

Abstract

Seventy-five soil samples were collected from different sites in Basrah province, southern Iraq to investigate the presence of basidiomycetous yeasts using the dilution-plate method. The growing isolates on culture media were identified based on morphological and biochemical features, and was confirmed by molecular data. Twelve yeast species belong to six different genera were identified. The most frequent isolated species were belonging to genus Naganishia with five species. All the described species are recorded for first time from Iraq. New strains were also obtained in the present study and registered in the Japanese Gene Bank.