Liebetanzomyces polymorphus Joshi, G.W. Griff. & Dagar, gen. et

Joshi, Akshay, Lanjekar, Vikram B., Dhakephalkar, Prashant K., Callaghan, Tony M., Griffith, Gareth W. & Dagar, Sumit Singh, 2018, Liebetanzomycespolymorphus gen. et sp. nov., a new anaerobic fungus (Neocallimastigomycota) isolated from the rumen of a goat, MycoKeys 40, pp. 89-110 : 98-99

Liebetanzomyces polymorphus Joshi, G.W. Griff. & Dagar, gen. et sp. nov.

Diagnosis.

Strictly anaerobic fungus with determinate, monocentric thallus with single terminal sporangium of varying shape and size and uniflagellate zoospores. The clade is defined by the sequences accession numbers MH468765 (ITS1, 5.8S, ITS2 complete) and MH468763 (LSU, partial sequence). The most genetically similar genus is Anaeromyces , which is defined as forming a polycentric thallus ( Breton et al. 1990.FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 58, p.177), in contrast to the monocentric Liebetanzomyces .

A strict anaerobic fungus, isolated from the rumen of a goat. In roll tubes of cellobiose agar medium, the fungus forms medium to large circular colonies (0.5-2 mm diam.). In liquid cellobiose medium, the fungal thalli attach to the sides and bottom of glass bottles. Monocentric thallus development, producing a single terminal sporangium per thallus. Also, the fungus produces few pseudo-intercalary sporangia but only on soluble substrates. An extensive anucleate rhizoidal system without constrictions is formed. The sporangia vary in size (10-90 µm wide, 10-75 µm long), shape (globose, ellipsoid, clavate, ovoid, elongate or irregular) and sometimes bear papillae. The sporangium is borne on variable length sporangiophore (15-80 µm), sometimes forming an eggcup-like structure below the sporangium or showing cyst-like structure. Zoospores are produced abundantly, mostly uniflagellate, rarely biflagellate, spherical (5-6 µm in diameter) in size and flagellum of 15-20 µm in length. The zoospores may germinate either endogenously or exogenously. The clade is defined by the sequences accession numbers MH468765 (ITS1, 5.8S, ITS2 complete) and MH468763 (LSU, partial sequence). The ex-type culture (strain G1SC) is stored cryogenically in liquid nitrogen at bioenergy group, Agharkar Research Institute, Pune, India. The holotype is a 3 d old culture of G1SC preserved in 5% glutaraldehyde and deposited at the MACS-collection of microorganisms (MCM) of Agharkar Research Institute, Pune, India and isotype material at the Aberystwyth University biorepository (code ABS).

Etymology.

‘Liebetanz’ is assigned to honour Erwin Liebetanz ( Liebetanz 1910) by taking all nine letters of his surname (i.e. LIEBETANZ) and who was the first to observe anaerobic gut fungus Piromyces as a flagellated organism in 1910; myces = the Greek name for fungus.

The specific epithet polymorphus is for different polymorphic sporangial shapes displayed by this fungus.