Spathaspora cesarfonsecae sp. nov., a xylose‐fermenting yeast isolated from gut of passalid beetles and rotting wood in the Amazonian rainforest biome

Two yeast isolates of a novel d-xylose-fermenting species were obtained from rotting wood and gut of a passalid beetle collected in the Brazilian Amazonian Rainforest biome. Sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacer-5.8S region and the D1/D2 domains of the LSU rRNA gene showed that the isolates represent a novel species of the genus Spathaspora, phylogenetically related to Spathaspora passalidarum. The yeast produced asci with a single malformed elongated ascospore with curved ends. The name Spathaspora cesarfonsecae sp. nov. is proposed to accommodate the novel species. The holotype of Sp. cesarfonsecae is CBS 14235 (MycoBank MB859328). Notably, Sp. cesarfonsecae demonstrated the ability to produce ethanol and xylitol from d-xylose, a biotechnologically valuable trait.