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

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.