ibclogo XVI International Botanical Congess


Abstract Number: 2226
Poster No. = 72


YEASTS FROM THE GUT OF COLEOPTERA: ISOLATION AND MOLECULAR PHYLOGENY


Sung-Oui Suh and Meredith Blackwell, Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA.


Undescribed yeasts were isolated from the gut of nitidulid, erotylid, tenebrionid, and scarabaeid beetles from species of Amanita, Boletus, Pisolithus, or Fomitella. The yeasts are considered to have a symbiotic relationship with the host beetles because of their high degree of host specificity. The yeasts were isolated repeatedly from hosts at different localities and at different times. Both morphological and molecular data show that the yeast isolates are mitosporic saccharomycetalean species, but two are basidiomycetous yeasts. The yeasts do not form a monophyletic group, but yeasts from two species of tenebrionids are closely related. None of the yeasts is closely related to previously described yeast symbionts of other beetles, except some isolates are a sister group to Candida xestobii, an anobiid symbiont.


HTML-Version made 7. July 1999 by Kurt Stüber