Pseudogeomyces Zhi.Y. Zhang & Y.F. Han, 2023

Zhang, Zhi-Yuan, Han, Yan-Feng, Chen, Wan-Hao & Tao, Gang, 2023, Additions to Thelebolales (Leotiomycetes, Ascomycota): Pseudogeomyces lindneri gen. et sp. nov. and Pseudogymnoascus campensis sp. nov., MycoKeys 95, pp. 47-60 : 47

Pseudogeomyces Zhi.Y. Zhang & Y.F. Han gen. nov.

Etymology.

Referring to its similarity to Geomyces .

Geographical distribution.

China and the USA.

Description.

Saprobic on the soil. Sexual morph: not observed. Asexual morph: Hyphae branched, septate, smooth. Conidiophores solitary, rare branches, hyaline, smooth, arising from the erect or geniculated hyphae, usually bearing two to three branches at the tip. Conidia hyaline, rough, verrucosa, solitary, obovoid, globose to subglobose, borne on hyphae, short protrusions, side branches or in conidiophores separated by connective cells. Intercalary conidia hyaline, globose to subglobose, fusiform with both truncate. Chlamydospores not observed.

Type species.

Pseudogeomyces lindneri Zhi. Y. Zhang & Y. F. Han.

Notes.

Pseudogeomycesis is introduced to accommodate Pseudogeomycesis lindneri obtained from urban soil in China and the four isolates (12NJ08, 17WV09, 23WI14 and 23WI08) obtained from bat hibernacular soil in New Jersey, West Virginia and Wisconsin, USA ( Minnis and Lindner 2013). Unfortunately, these isolates have not been identified to species to date. Currently, the order Thelebolales consists of 24 genera ( Wijayawardene et al. 2017; Ekanayaka et al. 2019; Zhang et al. 2021). The results of phylogenetic analyses (Figs 1 , 2 ) revealed that Pseudogeomycesis formed a distinct clade with high support value. However, Ascophanus , Ascozonus , Caccobius , Coprobolus , Leptokalpion , Neelakesa and Pseudascozonus are lacking sequence data ( Ekanayaka et al. 2019; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/, retrieval in Oct 2022); thus, these genera were not included in our phylogenetic analysis. Besides, these genera were reported without asexual morphs ( Wijayawardene et al. 2017). Therefore, it was not possible to compare the morphological differences of the newly-established genus, Pseudogeomycesis (sexual stage not observed), with the aforementioned genera. However, members of these genera are saprobes (involving dung and wood), terrestrial and widely distributed ( Wijayawardene et al. 2017). Of the remaining genera, Pseudogeomyces were similar to Geomyces and the asexual morphs of Pseudogymnoascus . However, Pseudogeomyces differed from Geomyces and Pseudogymnoascus with the presence of two to three irregular branches at the tip of the conidiophores ( Kuehn 1958; Van Oorschot 1980).

Figures

Figure 1. Phylogram generated from a Maximum Likelihood analysis of sequences of Thelebolales, based on ITS and LSU. ML bootstrap values (≥ 75 %) and Bayesian posterior probability (≥ 0.75) are indicated along branches (BP / ML). The new taxa are highlighted in bold and blue and " T " indicate ex-type cultures.

Figure 2. Phylogram generated from A Maximum Likelihood analysis of sequences of Thelebolaceae, based on ITS, LSU, EF 1 A, RPB 2 and MCM 7. ML bootstrap values (≥ 75 %) and Bayesian posterior probability (≥ 0.75) are indicated along branches (BP / ML). Clades are identified using clade nomenclature (A to O) formally defined by Minnis and Lindner (2013). The new taxa are highlighted in bold and blue and " T " indicate ex-type cultures.