RESULTS:

Two yeast strains NYNU 224191 and NYNU 22411 were isolated from plant leaves of Cyclobalanopsis jenseniana and Schisandra sp. harvested from Qingyuan Mountain Quanzhou City Fujian Province southeast China. Molecular phylogenetic analyses demonstrated that these two strains represent a novel species in the genus Meira. They are more closely related to M. marina M. nashicola M. plantarum and M. pileae than other Meira species based on phylogenetic analysis of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and the D1/D2 domain of the large subunit (LSU) rRNA gene. The novel species differed from its closest relatives M. marina M. nashicola M. plantarum and M. pileae by 1.8–2% sequence divergence (11–12 substitutions and 1–2 gaps) in the D1/D2 domain and over 6.7% sequence divergence (40–60 substitutions and 53–77 gaps) in the ITS region respectively. We propose the name Meira qingyuanensis sp. nov. (Holotype CICC 33567; Mycobank MB 855328) for the new species which differs phenotypically from M. marina M. plantarum and M. pileae in its ability to assimilate methyl-α-d-glucoside and the inability to assimilate salicin and from M. nashicola in its ability to assimilate nitrate and nitrite and grow at 30 °C.