Abstract
A survey of yeasts associated with apricots was carried out in May 2019. Two strains isolated from two fresh apricots were identified as a novel species of the genus Colacogloea based on a multi locus phylogenetic analysis, and physiological and biochemical tests. The two strains differed from any hitherto known Colacogloea species by at least 18 nucleotide substitutions (3%) in the D1/D2 domains of the LSU rRNA gene and by more than 10% mismatches in the ITS region. Also, the two strains differed phylogenetically from their closest relatives, C. falcata and C. diffluens, in its inability to assimilate galactose, D-xylose and citrate. The new species C. armeniacae sp. nov. is proposed here to accommodate those two strains.