Abstract:

Traditional ‘Nang’ (traditional Xinjiang food) doughs were sampled from Ürümqi, Altay, Ili, Kashgar, Aksu
and Hotan in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and investigated for yeast diversity by plate separation and purification,
26S rDNA D1/D2 sequence analysis and phylogenetic analysis. Totally 227 yeast strains were isolated and identified as
belonging to 14 species in 10 genera, i.e., Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Saccharomyces servazzii, Pichia fermentans, Pichia
membranifacies, Pichia kudriavzevii, Pichia anomala, Candida humilis, Hanseniaspora uvarum, Torulaspora delbrueckii,
Wickerhamomyces anomalus, Cladosporium ramotenellum, Cryptococcus albidus, Kodamaea ohmeri and Issatchenkia orientalis.
S. cerevisiae was the most widely distributed and predominant species (126 isolates), representing 55.51% of all isolates. In
the phylogenetic tree, S. cerevisiae formed two big and four small branches. Among them, A1-1 branch was constituted by
115 strains and were the most predominant strains of ‘Nang’ dough during fermentation. The diversity of yeasts in traditional
‘Nang’ dough can provide useful information for further utilization of yeasts in traditional fermented ‘Nang’ dough.

Key words: ‘Nang&rsquo, dough, yeast, 26S rDNA D1/D2 region