Five yeast strains were isolated from soil and moss samples from the Livingston Island (Antarctica) and identified according to morphological cultural and physiological characteristics. All strains had an optimum growth temperature of 15 degrees C: none grew above 25 degrees C. They assimilated D-glucose, D-galactose, sucrose, cellobiose, trehalose, 2-keto-D-gluconate, D-xylose, D-ribose and melezitose. Four of them were nonfermentative, only one, which formed pseudomycelium fermented glucose, galactose, trehalose. Two strains were identified as pink-red yeasts belonging to genus Rhodotorula--R. minuta and R. mucilaginosa; two were related to the genus Cryptococcus--C. albidus and C. laurentii; one was Candida oleophila.

Laboratory of Applied Microbiology Institute of Microbiology Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Plovdiv 4002 Bulgaria

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