title: Correlation among phenotypical and molecular techniques in comparing ascomycetous yeast type strains.
abstract: Different phenotypical or molecular techniques can be used to describe and classify microorganisms for taxonomic, phylogenetic or genetic purposes. In yeast taxonomy the official hierarchic classification, based on morphological and physiological characters, is used together with more convenient molecular techniques such as the DNA sequencing. The question on whether these procedures produce coherent classifications is critical both to interpret taxonomic data consistently and to outline species correctly. In this paper, a set of type strains from the major genera of the budding hemiascomycetes yeast is examined with a series of physiological and molecular techniques, widely employed in taxonomy, in order to compare the among-strains correlations obtained with different methods. Results showed that the level of correlation among different techniques is relatively low, showing that different classifications and species organization could be obtained with diverse approaches. This is particularly interesting, considering that the official description of the yeast species is based on characters different from those becoming increasingly popular in the routine identification.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia Vegetale e Biotecnologie Agroambientali, Università degli Studi di Perugia, Borgo 20 Giugno 74, 06121 Perugia.
authors.forename: Raffaele
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: De Nicola
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Corte
authors.forename: Monia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lattanzi
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Martini
authors.forename: Fabrizio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fatichenti
authors.forename: Gianluigi
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cardinali
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001203:Ascomycota / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D016521:Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field / Q000379:methods; D005285:Fermentation; D010641:Phenotype; D019105:Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Technique / Q000379:methods; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA / Q000379:methods*; D015003:Yeasts / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics