Monilochaetes pteridophytophila J.Y. Zhang, K.D. Hyde & Y.Z. Lu, 2021

Zhang, Jingyi, Phookamsak, Rungtiwa, Mapook, Ausana, Lu, Yongzhong & Lv, Menglan, 2021, Monilochaetes pteridophytophila (Australiascaceae, Glomerellales), a new fungus from tree fern, Biodiversity Data Journal 9, pp. 67248-67248 : 67248

Monilochaetes pteridophytophila J.Y. Zhang, K.D. Hyde & Y.Z. Lu sp. nov.

Materials

Type status: Holotype. Occurrence: recordedBy: Jing Yi Zhang; Taxon : scientificName: Monilochaetes pteridophytophila; phylum: Ascomycota ; class: Sordariomycetes ; order: Glomerellales ; family: Australiascaceae ; Location : locationRemarks: THAILAND, Tak Province, Umphang District , Mo Kro Subdistrict , 16°12'11"N, 98°52'5"E, 21 August 2019; Event: habitat: Terrestrial; fieldNotes: on dead frond stalks of Alsophila costularis Baker (Cyatheaceae) in a disturbed forest nearby the roadside; Record Level: collectionID: MFLU 21-0023; collectionCode: Y 26 Type status: Isotype. Record Level: collectionID: GZAAS 21-0015

Description

Saprobic on dead frond stalks of Alsophila costularis . Sexual morph: Undetermined. Asexual morph: Hyphomycetous (Fig. 1 ), colonies on natural substrate superficial, effuse, gregarious, white. Conidiophores (268-)360-565 μm high (x̄ = 465 μm, n = 15), 9-14.5 μm wide (x̄ = 12 μm, n = 15) near the base, macronematous, unbranched, solitary, erect, straight or slightly flexuous, monophialidic, subcylindrical, thick-walled, 1-4-septate, dark brown to black, darker near the base, becoming paler brown towards the apex. Conidiogenous cells 25-54 × 7-11.5 μm (x̄ = 38 × 9.5 μm, n = 20), enteroblastic, monophialidic, terminal, swollen, with a shallow collarette, subcylindrical with apical taper to truncate apex, pale brown, rough. Conidia 20-24 × 10-12 μm (x̄ = 22 × 11.7 μm, n = 30), oblong to obovoid or ellipsoidal, occasionally with a median or submedian constriction, thick-walled, hyaline, aseptate, rough-walled.

Culture characteristics: Conidia germinating on PDA within 12 hours at 25℃, with hyaline germ tube germinating from the base of conidia. Colonies growing on PDA at 25℃, circular, flat surface, planar, thin, dark brown, reaching 2 cm diam. in 7 days, edge entire, emission at margin, dark brown to pale brown in reverse from the centre to margin of the colony.

Material: ex-type living culture, MFLUCC 21-0022.

Etymology

Referring to the host, which is a pteridophyte.

Notes

Monilochaetes pteridophytophila formed a distinct phylogenetic clade, which clustered with other species of Monilochaetes (Fig. 2 ). Following BLASTn searches, the closest matches of M. pteridophytophila are M. melastomae (LSU, NG_068601, 98.21% shared identity; ITS, NR_161124, 84.5%), M. laeensis (SSU, GU180610, 99.4%) and M. infuscans (RPB2, GU180658, 80.64%). Monilochaetes pteridophytophila is most similar to M. regenerans in the shape of conidiophores, conidiogenous cells and conidia ( Bhat and Kendrick 1993). However, M. pteridophytophila has darker and longer conidiophores [(268-)360-565 μm vs. 300 μm high], shorter conidiogenous cells (25-54 μm vs. 70-100 μm) and smaller conidia (20-24 × 10-12 μm vs. 25-38 × 12-16 μm). Therefore, we introduce M. pteridophytophila as a new species, based on both phylogenetic and morphological evidence.

Figures

Figure 1. Monilochaetes pteridophytophila (MFLU 21 - 0023, holotype). a. The host tree fern (Alsophila costularis) in the field; b. Dead frond stalks of tree fern; c. Colony on dead frond stalk of tree fern; d. Conidiophore; e - g. Conidiogenous cells with attached conidia; h. Germinating conidium; i - n. Conidia; o. Colony on PDA from above and below. Scale bars: c = 200 μm, d = 100 μm, e - h = 20 μm, i - n = 10 μm.

Figure 2. Phylogenetic tree generated from ML analysis, based on a concatenated LSU-ITS-SSU-RPB 2 dataset. BS ≥ 70 / PP ≥ 0.95 are indicated at the nodes. The newly-generated strain is shown in red and bold. Ex-type strains are indicated by black and bold. Collariella bostrychodes (CBS 586.83), Corynascus fumimontanus (CBS 137294) and Leptosillia pistaciae (CBS 128196) were used as outgroup taxa.