Phaeotremella camelliae sp. nov. (Phaeotremellaceae, Tremellales), A Novel Yeasts Isolated from Tea-Oil Fruits in Jiangxi Province, China

Trends in yeast diversity discovery

Yeasts, usually defined as unicellular fungi, occur in various fungal lineages. Hence, they are not a taxonomic unit, but rather represent a fungal lifestyle shared by several unrelated lineages. Although the discovery of new yeast species occurs at an increasing speed, at the current rate it will likely take hundreds of years, if ever, before they will all be documented. Many parts of the earth, including many threatened habitats, remain unsampled for yeasts and many others are only superficially studied. Cold habitats, such as glaciers, are home to a specific community of cold-adapted yeasts, and, hence, there is some urgency to study such environments at locations where they might disappear soon due to anthropogenic climate change. The same is true for yeast communities in various natural forests that are impacted by deforestation and forest conversion. Many countries of the so-called Global South have not been sampled for yeasts, despite their economic promise. However, extensive research activity in Asia, especially China, has yielded many taxonomic novelties. Comparative genomics studies have demonstrated the presence of yeast species with a hybrid origin, many of them isolated from clinical or industrial environments. DNA-metabarcoding studies have demonstrated the prevalence, and in some cases dominance, of yeast species in soils and marine waters worldwide, including some surprising distributions, such as the unexpected and likely common presence of Malassezia yeasts in marine habitats.

Colacogloea armeniacae sp. nov., a novel pucciniomycetous yeast species isolated from apricots

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.