Barssia guozigouensis L. Fan & Y.Y. Xu, 2018

Xu, Yu-Yan, Guo, Li-Jie, Li, Ting & Fan, Li, 2018, Two new species of Barssia from China, Phytotaxa 374 (2), pp. 129-138 : 135

Barssia guozigouensis L. Fan & Y.Y. Xu , sp. nov. Fig. 4 .

Fungal Names : FN570586

Etymology: guozigouensis, Guozigou , fruit-valley, referring to locality where the type specimen was collected.

Holotype: China. Xinjiang Autonomous Region, Huocheng County, Guozigou Forest Park , alt. 1800m, in soil under Picea schrenkiana Fisch. & C.A. Mey. , 11 August 2003, W. P. Wu & M. S. Song 060 ( HMAS 97107 ).

Ascomata subglobose to irregularly globose, usually with some superficial or deep furrows, 4–16 × 4–14 mm in dry, brown to red brown, with an pale color apical depression, surface covered with distinctly pyramidal or round red brown warts of 200–260 μm wide and 100–140 μm high, odor and taste not recorded. Gleba whitish to yellow white at maturity, solid, marbled with large white vines radiating from apical depression, scattered with some small and irregular chambers. Peridium 250–450 μm thick, two-layered, outer layer 100–160 μm thick, pseudoparenchymatous, composed of polygonal cells with 4-6 sides, cells 15–30×10–20 μm, walls 1–2 μm thick, the ourtemost cells reddish-brown, and gradually light-yellow to nearly hyaline towards inner side; inner layer near hyaline, 150–250μm thick, composed of interwoven hyphae, that more or less parallel to the surface of peridium, hyphae hyaline, 2–5 μm wide. Paraphyses not well-defined, hyaline, cylindrical, straight or sometimes slightly curved, septate, longer than asci, 2.0– 5.0 μm wide. Asci irregularly clavate or broadly ellipsoid, with a protruding hump at the apex and a pleurorhynchous base, with a slender-stalk, 45–60 μm long, 5.5–8.5μm wide, inamyloid, 8-spored, 140–205 × 30–48 μm (including stalk), spores irregularly arranged in ascus. Ascospores ellipsoid, smooth, hyaline, inamyloid, 23.0–28.5 × 13.5–19.0 μm (av. 25.0 × 16.0 μm), Q (L/I) = 1.35–1.75 (Qm = 1.60) (n = 30), usually containing one large oil drop that almost occupied the entire spore.

Other materials examined: China. Xinjiang Autonomous Region, Huocheng County, Guozigou Forest Park, alt. 1800m, in soil under Picea schrenkiana Fisch. & C.A.Mey. , 11 August 2003, M. S. Song 067 ( HMAS 97104 ) ; ibid., M. S. Song & X. Z. Liu 070 ( HMAS 97119 ) ; ibid., M. S. Song & X. Q. Zhang 064 ( HMAS 97114 ) ; ibid., M. S. Song & W. P. Wu 056 ( HMAS 97128 ) ; ibid., M. S. Song 062 ( HMAS 97131 ) .

Note: Barssia guozigouensis is diagnosed by its distinctly warty ascomata and solid gleba scattered with some small and irregular chambers. Phylogenetically, it was closely related to B. luyashanensis ( Figs 1 , 2 ), but the latter differs in its ascomata with fine warts and gleba without chambers. Moreover, the ascospores of B. luyashanensis are larger (24.5–30.8 × 15.5–21.5 μm). The North African species B. maroccana is similar to B. guozigouensis in shape of ascospores, but differs in size (29–36 × 16–22 μm).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Phylogenetic tree generated from a maximum likelihood analysis based on nrLSU sequences, showing the phylogenetic relationships of the new species. Tuber anniae and T. bellisporum are the outgroups. Likelihood bootstrap support values (≥ 70%) and Bayesian posterior probabilities values (≥ 0.95) are indicated above the nodes as BS/PP. Novel sequences are printed in bold.

FIGURE 2. Phylogenetic tree generated from a maximum likelihood analysis based on ITS+nrLSU combined sequences, showing the phylogenetic relationships of the new species. Tuber anniae and T. bellisporum are the outgroups. Likelihood bootstrap support values (≥ 70%) and Bayesian posterior probabilities values (≥ 0.95) are indicated above the nodes as BS/PP. Novel sequences are printed in bold.

FIGURE 4. Barssia guozigouensis (HMAS 97107, holotype) a. Ascomata; b,c Peridium; d. stalk of ascus; e. mature ascus; f. immature ascus; g. light micrograph of ascospores. Scale bars: a = 5 mm; b = 100 μm; c = 50 μm; d = 25 μm; e = 25 μm; f = 25 μm; g = 25 μm.