Heitmania gen. nov., a new yeast genus in Microbotryomycetes, and description of three novel species: Heitmania litseae sp. nov., Heitmania castanopsis sp. nov. and Heitmania elacocarpi sp. nov.

Nine anamorphic yeast strains isolated from various plant leaves collected in southern China were phylogenetically characterized based on sequences of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, the D1/D2 domains of the large subunit (LSU) rRNA gene, the small subunit (SSU) rRNA gene, the two subunits of the RNA polymerase II gene (RPB1 and RPB2) and the translation elongation factor 1-α (TEF1). Phylogenetic analysis of the combined sequences of the six genes showed that the new strains formed a distinct clade in the class Microbotryomycetes but could not be assigned to any of the existing genera, families or orders of the class. Three separate groups were consistently resolved from the nine new strains based on the combined sequences of the six genes and single gene sequences of ITS, RPB1, RPB2 and TEF1. The results suggest that the nine yeast strains compared represent three novel species in a novel genus. The names Heitmania gen. nov. (MycoBank registration number MB819987), Heitmania litseae sp. nov. (MB820112, type strain CGMCC 2.5697T=CBS 14756T), Heitmania castanopsis sp. nov. (MB819988, CGMCC 2.5698T=CBS 14750T) and Heitmania elacocarpi sp. nov. (MB820113, CGMCC 2.5695T=CBS 14752T) are proposed for the new taxa.