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. 2025 Sep 1;190(5):81.
doi: 10.1007/s11046-025-00985-z.

Expansion of the Candidozyma haemuli Species Complex - The Novel Species Candidozyma molenica, Isolated from Clinical and Environmental Sources

Annemarie Zandijk  1 , Tjomme van der Bruggen  2 , Matthias Sipiczki  3 , Wim J E Tissing  4 , Tom F W Wolfs  4   5 , Bert Gerrits van den Ende  1 , Marizeth Groenewald  1 , Ferry Hagen  6   7   8
Affiliations

Expansion of the Candidozyma haemuli Species Complex - The Novel Species Candidozyma molenica, Isolated from Clinical and Environmental Sources

Annemarie Zandijk et al. Mycopathologia. .

Abstract

Due to the recent unprecedented global rise of Candidozyma auris in hospital environments the members of the Candidozyma haemuli species complex have raised significant interest of clinicians and researchers. Until the finding of C. auris, the species complex did not receive much attention as the known pathogenic species were only rarely encountered in hospitals and clinical diagnostic laboratories. During the past years several new species were described, such as Candidozyma khanbhai and Candidozyma vulturna, that were found to be of clinical importance. Here, we used phylogenetic and phenotypic analyses -including antifungal susceptibility testing- to characterize and describe a new and potentially clinically relevant yeast that we obtained from clinical specimen and flowers, representing the proposed novel species Candidozyma molenica.

Keywords: Candidozyma auris; Candidozyma haemuli species complex; Candidozyma khanbhai; Candidozyma vulturna; Emerging pathogen; Misidentification.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Conflict of interests: The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose. Ethical Approval: As a retrospective sample was used, and that non-traceable clinical information is given, which did not influence patient care and treatment or can reveal patient identity, the ethical approval has automatically been waived by the IRB.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Phylogenetic analysis of the Candidozyma haemuli species complex. Sequences were aligned with MAFFT prior to creating a phylogenetic tree using IQ-tree with 1000 bootstrap repeats. The selected model of substitution is TNe + G4. The support values near the branches show likelihood ratio test/bayesian inference/bootstrap in this order
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Phenotypic characteristics of Candidozyma molenica. Candidozyma molenica sp. nov. CBS 18490T. Slide cultures, showing the formation of pseudohyphae after 4 days at 25 °C onto GYPA (Panel A) and after 8 days at 37 °C onto GYPA (Panel B). Vegetative cells grown on GYPA for 3 days at 25 °C (Panel C). Bar, 10 µm
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Growth of Candidozyma molenica and sibling species onto CHROMagar culture media. Candidozyma molenica strains and sibling species were inoculated onto CHROMagar Candida and CHROMagar Candida Plus culture media and incubated at 35 °C for 48 h. Numbers next to the colonies refer to the following species and strain numbers: 1–4 = C. molenica CBS 18490T, CBS 18491, CBS 18500, and CBS 18501; 5 = C. haemuli CBS 5149T; 6 = C. pseudohaemuli CBS 10004T; 7 = C. duobushaemuli CBS 7798T; 8 = C. auris CBS 10913T; 9 = C. vulturna CBS 14366T; 10 = C. khanbhai CBS 16213T; 11 = C. heveicola CBS 10701T; 12 = C. chanthaburiensis CBS 10926T; 13 = C. konsanensis CBS 12666T; 14 = C. ruelliae CBS 10815T; 15 = C. albicans CBS 562NT; 16 = C. tropicalis CBS 94T; 17 = N. glabratus CBS 138T; 18 = P. kudriavzevii CBS 573T; 19 = C. parapsilosis CBS 604T; 20 = C. orthopsilosis CBS 10906T
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