sp. nov., a black yeast related to fruit trees of the Rosaceae family.

Our previous studies focused on the diversity of yeasts related to the aboveground parts of fruit trees, as well as the soil adjacent to these trees, located in the south-west of Slovakia. During these studies, we isolated two strains: CCY 11-1-1 from the blossoms of a peach tree () and CCY 11-1-2 from the soil adjacent to a pear tree (), both found in the Malé Zálužie locality. The sequences of the D1/D2 domain of the large subunit (LSU) rRNA gene and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region were identical in both strains. They differed only by two nucleotide substitutions in the segment of the gene of translation elongation factor one alpha (). Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that strains CCY 11-1-1 and CCY 11-1-2 formed a separate species in the clade of insect-associated members of the genus . The strains differed from the closest species by 23 nucleotide substitutions and 12 indels in the D1/D2 domain, more than 6 % in the ITS region (31 nt and 25 indels) and by 44 nt in the segment of . Therefore, these two strains are recognized as belonging to a novel species, for which we have proposed the name sp. nov., derived from the locality of their origin, Malé Zálužie. The type strain of sp. nov. is CCY 11-1-1.