Neodeightonia arengae Y.R. Xiong, Manawas., K.D. Hyde & Z.Y. Dong

Rathnayaka, Achala R., Chethana, K. W. Thilini, Phillips, Alan J. L. & Jones, E. B. Gareth, 2022, Two new species of Botryosphaeriaceae (Botryosphaeriales) and new host / geographical records, Phytotaxa 564 (1), pp. 8-38 : 28

Neodeightonia arengae Y.R. Xiong, Manawas., K.D. Hyde & Z.Y. Dong , in Xiong et al., Phytotaxa: (2) (2022)

Index Fungorum number: IF558659; Facesoffungi number: FoF10227, Fig. 12

Synonym: Neodeightonia pinangae Tennakoon, C.H. Kuo & K.D. Hyde , in Phukhamsakda et al., Fungal Diversity: (6) (2022)

Saprobic on dead branch of Arenga tremula . Sexual morph: Ascomata 190–220 μm high × 175–280 μm diam. (x̄ = 205 × 230 μm, n = 5), solitary, scattered, semi-immersed, uniloculate, subglobose, ostiolate. Ostiole circular, central, papillate. Peridium 16–36 μm wide, composed of several layers of dark brown to hyaline cells of textura angularis to textura prismatica. Hamathecium 1–3 μm wide, dense, hyphae-like, septate, often constricted at the septa, hyaline, composed of pseudoparaphyses. Asci 45–110 × 18–30 μm (x̄ = 70 × 23 μm, n = 10), bitunicate, fissitunicate, 8-spored, clavate to cylindro-clavate, short pedicellate, apically rounded with a well-developed ocular chamber. Ascospores 20–25 × 8–11 μm (x̄ = 22 × 10 μm, n = 30), irregularly biseriate, ellipsoidal-fusiform or fusiform, hyaline, widest in the middle, both ends obtuse, aseptate, guttulate with bipolar germ pores, surrounded by 2–5.4 μm wide wing-like appendage. Asexual morph: see Xiong et al. (2022) for description.

Culture characteristics:—Ascospores germinating on PDA within 6 hours and germ tube produced from one side of the ascospore. Colonies on PDA reaching 5–7 cm diam. after 3 days at 25 °C, circular, flattened, fluffy, dense, aerial, grey in upper side and black in lower side.

Material examined: — TAIWAN. Fenghuang Mountain, on dead branch of Arenga tremula (Arecaceae) , 17 September 2019, Achala Rathnayaka, (MFLU 22-0098, new host record), living culture NCYUCC 19-0419.

Known hosts and distribution:— Arenga tremula in China ( Xiong et al. 2022), Pinanga tashiroi in Taiwan ( Phukhamsakda et al. 2022), Arenga tremula in Taiwan (this study).

Notes:—Based on multi-gene phylogenetic analyses (ITS, LSU, SSU and tef 1-α), our strain (NCYUCC 19-0419) clustered with the ex-type strain (ZHKUCC 21-0074) and other authentic strains (ZHKUCC 21-0075, NCYUCC 19- 0144 and MFLUCC 19-0077) with high 91% ML bootstrap and 0.94 PP support ( Fig. 3 ). The holotype of N. arengae is recorded from the asexual morph ( Xiong et al. 2022), while our strain is recorded from the sexual morph. Therefore, we could not compare the morphology between the holotype and our strain. According to the phylogenetic analyses in this study, N. arengae (ZHKUCC 21-0074 and ZHKUCC 21-0075), N. pinangae (NCYUCC 19-0077 and MFLUCC 19-0144) introduced by Phukhamsakda et al. (2022) and our collection (NCYUCC 19-0419) clustered in the same clade, and no base pair differences were found in the ITS regions (ITS1-5.8S-ITS2) among these strains. Therefore, we synonymize N. pinangae under N. arengae . Both ZHKUCC 21-0074 and NCYUCC 19-0077 were recorded from different hosts in different countries. Based on morpho-molecular evidence in this study, we conclude that our new collection is the first record of Arenga tremula in Taiwan.

Figures

FIGURE 3. Phylogram generated from ML analysis based on combined dataset of ITS, LSU, SSU, and tef1-α. The tree is rooted to Diplodia mutila (CBS 112553) and D. rosulata (CBS 116470). Tree topology is similar to previous study conducted by Phukhamsakda et al. (2022). Bootstrap support values for ML ≥ 70% and Bayesian posterior probabilities (PP) ≥ 0.90 are noted at the nodes. Strain numbers are noted after the species names. Strains isolated in this study are presented in red and type strains are in bold.

FIGURE 12. Neodeightonia arengae on dead branch of Arenga tremula (NCYUCC 19-0419). a−c. Appearance of ascomata on host surface. d, e. Section of ascoma. f. Peridium. g. Pseudoparaphyses. h−k.Asci. l−n. Ascospores with a wing-like appendages (in water). o. Ascospore in 100% lactic acid. p, q. Colony on PDA (p upper, q lower). Scale bars: a = 1 mm, b = 500 μm, c–e = 100 μm, f = 5 μm, g–k = 20 μm, l–o = 10 μm.