Echinocatena sinensis Zhi.Y. Zhang, Y.F. Han & Z.Q. Liang, 2023

Zhang, Zhi-Yuan, Li, Xin, Chen, Wan-Hao, Liang, Jian-Dong & Han, Yan-Feng, 2023, Culturable fungi from urban soils in China II, with the description of 18 novel species in Ascomycota (Dothideomycetes, Eurotiomycetes, Leotiomycetes and Sordariomycetes), MycoKeys 98, pp. 167-220 : 167

Echinocatena sinensis Zhi.Y. Zhang, Y.F. Han & Z.Q. Liang sp. nov.

Fig. 2

Etymology.

The epithet refers to the locality where the type specimen was found, China.

Type.

China: Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Baise City, Peninsula Park 23°89'96"N, 106°63'29"E, from soil, 30 Aug 2019, Z.Y. Zhang (HMAS 351873 holotype designated here, ex-type living culture CGMCC 3.20775 = GZUIFR 21.900) ; ibid., GZUIFR 21.901 .

Description.

Culture characteristics (14 days at 25 °C): Colony on PDA 16-18 mm diam. after 14 d at 25 °C, dark olive green (2F2), flat, texture velvety, nearly round, margin entire; reverse dark slate grey (3F2). Colony on MEA 8-9 mm diam., dark slate grey (3F1), convex, texture velvety, irregularity, margin entire; reverse dark slate grey (3F2). Colony on OA 10-12 mm diam., dark slate grey, flat (3F2), texture velvety, nearly round, margin entire, soluble pigments brown to pale red exudates absent; reverse dark pink (12F1).

Hyphae branched, septate, hyaline, smooth, 1.0-3.5 μm diam. Conidiophores erect or with an acute angle to the axis near the apex, solitary, unbranched, 9.5-49.0 × 1.0-5.0 µm, hyaline, smooth, 1-8-septate, straight to flexuous. Conidiogenous cells in simple or branched acropetal chains, 4.0-8.5 × 3.0-5.0 µm, separated by thick, dark brown, refractive septa, appearing like a separating cell, pale brown, doliiform to cylindrical, constricted at the septa, polyblastic, integrated with 3-5 conidiogenous loci. Conidia solitary, pyriform, sometimes spherical, aseptate, smooth, brown, 3.5-7.0 × 3.5-7.0 µm (av. 4.9 × 5.3 μm, n = 50). Sexual morph not observed.

Additional specimens examined.

China: Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Baise City, Youjiang Campus of Baise University 23°89'10"N, 106°60'86"E, from soil, 30 Aug 2019, Z.Y. Zhang, GZUIFR 21.902, ibid., GZUIFR 21.903 .

Notes.

Currently, one species is accepted in Echinocatena ( Campbell and Sutton 1977; Shen et al. 2020). The phylogenetic analyses, based on the combined ITS, LSU, EF1A, TUB and RPB2 dataset, indicate Echinocatena sinensis and E. arthrinioides group in a distinct clade (Fig. 1 ). The morphology of E. sinensis is very similar to Echinocatena in having straight to flexuous conidiophores, polyblastic conidiogenous cells, spherical, aseptate conidia ( Campbell and Sutton 1977). Echinocatena sinensis can be distinguished from E. arthrinioides by its conidia that are smooth and pyriform in shape ( Campbell and Sutton 1977), as well as by the low sequence similarity between the two species (ITS: 312/403, 77.4% similarity, 25 gaps; LSU: 787/827, 95.2% similarity, 4 gaps).

Figures

Figure 1. Concatenated phylogeny of the ITS, LSU, EF 1 A, TUB and RPB 2 gene regions of species in Sympoventuriaceae. Thirty-five strains are used. The tree is rooted with Pseudoanungitea vaccinii (CPC 30523) and P. vaccinii (CBS 143164). The tree topology of the BI was similar to the ML analysis. Bayesian posterior probability (≥ 0.8) and ML bootstrap values (≥ 80 %) are indicated along branches (PP / ML). Novel species are in blue and bold font and " T " indicates type derived sequences.

Figure 2. Echinocatena sinensis (from ex-holotype CGMCC 3.20775) a-c upper and reverse views of cultures on PDA, MEA and OA 14 d after inoculation d-g phialides and conidia. Scale bars: 10 µm (d-g).