Candida aquaetextoris sp. nov., a new species of yeast occurring in sludge from a textile industry wastewater treatment plant in Tuscany, Italy.

We describe Candida aquaetextoris, a new yeast species isolated from sludge that accumulates at the main wastewater treatment facility which processes discharges from textile factories located in the Prato metropolitan district, northern Tuscany, Italy. This yeast degrades 4-(1-nonyl)phenol, a toxic intermediate originating from the microbial attack of nonylphenol polyethoxylates, which are nonionic surfactants largely used in leather and textile industries. In the investigation we employed conventional and molecular taxonomy techniques to compare the new isolate to strains of physiologically similar species, such as Candida maltosa and Candida tropicalis, as well as strains of quite phenotypically different species, such as Candida haemulonii. The results demonstrate that the yeast which we identified represents a separate taxon. The type strain of C. aquaetextoris is strain Lmar1, which has been deposited in the Industrial Yeast Collection of the Division of Applied Microbiology, Department of Plant Biology, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy, as strain DBVPG 6732.