The Qaidam Basin is the highest and one of the largest and driest deserts on Earth. It is considered a mars analog area in China. In contrast to numerous studies concerning its geology, geophysical, and chemistry, relatively few studies have reported microbial diversity and distribution in this area. Here, we investigated culturable yeast diversity in the northeast Qaidam Basin. A total of 194 yeast strains were isolated, and 12 genera and 21 species were identified, among which 19 were basidiomycetous yeasts. Naganishia albida, N. adeliensis, and Filobasidium magnum were the three most dominant species and were distributed in thirteen samples from eight locations. Five new species (Filobasidium chaidanensis, Kondoa globosum, Symmetrospora salmoneus, Teunia nitrariae, and Vishniacozyma pseudodimennae) were found and described based on ITS and D1D2 gene loci together with phenotypic characteristics and physiochemical analysis. Representative strains from each species were chosen for the salt-tolerant test, in which species showed different responses to different levels of NaCl concentrations. Further, the strain from soil can adapt well to the higher salt stress compared to those from plants or lichens. Our study represents the first report of the yeast diversity in the Qaidam Basin, including five new species, and also provides further information on the halotolerance of yeasts from the saline environment in mars analog.

中文翻译：

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中国柴达木盆地沙漠酵母菌多样性与五种新酵母菌的描述

柴达木盆地是地球上海拔最高、面积最大、最干燥的沙漠之一。它被认为是中国的火星模拟区。与许多关于其地质、地球物理和化学的研究相比，相对较少的研究报告了该地区的微生物多样性和分布。在这里，我们调查了柴达木盆地东北部可培养酵母菌的多样性。共分离出酵母菌194株，鉴定出12属21种，其中担子菌19种。Naganishia albida、N. adeliensis和Filobasidium magnum是三个最主要的物种，分布在来自八个地点的十三个样本中。五个新种（柴丹丝虫，基于ITS和D1D2基因位点，结合表型特征和理化分析，发现并描述了球孔藻、沙门氏菌、硝化毛球菌和假二叉藻。选择来自每个物种的代表性菌株进行耐盐试验，其中物种对不同水平的NaCl浓度表现出不同的反应。此外，与来自植物或地衣的菌株相比，来自土壤的菌株可以很好地适应更高的盐胁迫。我们的研究代表了柴达木盆地酵母多样性的第一份报告，包括五个新物种，并且还提供了有关火星模拟中盐水环境中酵母的耐卤性的进一步信息。