Ogataea
Ogataea is a genus of ascomycetous yeasts in the family Saccharomycetaceae. It was separated from the former genus Hansenula via an examination of their 18S and 26S rRNA partial base sequencings by Yamada et al. 1994.
The genus name of Ogataea is in honour of Koichi Ogata, who was a Japanese microbiologist from the Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Faculty of Agriculture, at Kyoto University. It was stated in the journal; "The genus is named in honor of the late Professor Dr. Koichi Ogata, Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, in recognition of his studies on the oxidation and assimilation of methanol in methanol-utilizing yeasts."
The genus was circumscribed by Yuzo Yamada, Kojiro Maeda and Kozaburo Mikata in Biosc., Biotechn. Biochem. vol.58 on page 1253 in 1994.
Diagnosis
Like other yeasts, also the species within the genus Ogataea are single-celled or build pseudohyphae of only a few elongated cells; true hyphae are not formed.They are able to reproduce sexually or asexually. The latter case happens with a cell division by multilateral budding on a narrow base with spherical to ellipsoidal budded cells. In the sexual reproduction the asci are deliquescent and may be unconjugated or show conjugation between a cell and its bud or between independent cells. Asci produce one to four, sometimes more, ascospores which are hat-shaped, allantoid or spherical with a ledge. The species are homothallic or infrequently heterothallic.
Ogataea cells are able to ferment glucose or other sugars and some species assimilate nitrate. All known species are able to utilize methanol as carbon source. The predominant ubiquinone is coenzyme Q-7 and the diazonium blue B test is negative. Some species are used and cultured for microbiological and genetic research e.g. Ogataea polymorpha, Ogataea minuta or Ogataea methanolica. Ogataea minuta Y. Yamada, K. Maeda & Mikata is the type species for this genus.