Malassezia gallinae sp. nov., a new basidiomycetous yeast species isolated from skins of chickens.

Species of Malassezia are lipid-dependent yeasts and integral components of the skin microbiome. Most of the currently known species are isolated from mammals. However, the presence and distribution of Malassezia yeasts on the skin of avian species have not been fully understood or elucidated. During a survey on the occurrence of Malassezia species in chickens, 23 Malassezia strains isolated from the healthy skins of chickens may represent two candidate new species of this genus based on the sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) (including 5.8S rRNA) and the D1/D2 domains of 26S rRNA. The combined ITS and D1/D2 phylogenetic analysis showed that those two candidate new species were closely related to Malassezia slooffiae, and differed from the type of M. slooffiae by 51-62 nucleotides in the ITS region and four nucleotides in the D1/D2 domains, respectively. Based on the phylogenetic analysis and the phenotypic comparison, we propose a new species, named M. gallinae sp. nov., to include the 21 isolated strains.