Ciliochorella chinensis H.X. Wu & J.C. Li, 2023

Song, Jia-Yu, Wu, Hai-Xia, Li, Jin-Chen, Ding, Wei-Feng, Gong, Cui-Ling, Zeng, Xiang-Yu, Wijayawardene, Nalin N. & Yang, Da-Xin, 2023, Taxonomy and evolution history of two new litter-decomposing Ciliochorella (Amphisphaeriales, Sporocadaceae), MycoKeys 100, pp. 95-121 : 95

Ciliochorella chinensis H.X. Wu & J.C. Li sp. nov.

Etymology.

The species epithet reflects China where the species of Ciliochorella was first collected country.

Holotype.

IFRD9468.

Description.

Saprobic on leaf litter. Asexual morph: Coelomycetous. Conidiomata 894-1314 μm diameter (x¯ = 1055 μm, n = 14), unilocular, semi-immersed, circular areas, dark brown, mostly aggregated, sometimes solitary, forming a papilla in the center (Fig. 4a-c ). Conidiomata wall comprises a few to several layers of cells of textura angularis, with the innermost layer thin, transparent, and precisely arranged, the outer layer dark brown to black (Fig. 4d ). Conidiophores appear to be reduced to conidiogenous cells. Conidiogenous cells are enteroblastic phialidic, formed from the innermost layer of the wall, hyaline to pale brown, and smooth (Fig. 4e ). Conidia 14-18 × 3-4 μm (x¯ = 15.7 × 3.6 μm, n = 12), excluding apical and basal appendages, mean conidium length/width ratio = 4.4:1, navicular to subcylindrical, slightly curved, 1-septate, wide middle two cells with apical cell transformed into two forked filiform cellular appendages, 9-16 μm (x¯ = 12.5 μm, n = 20), the narrow basal cell with basal appendage, 4-7 μm (x¯ = 5.4 μm, n = 11), colorless to light brown, with guttules on the conidia surface (Fig. 4f-i ). Sexual morph: Unknown.

Culture characteristics.

Colonies on PDA, reaching 4.4 cm (n = 3) diam after 7 days at 26 °C, producing dense mycelium, irregular circular, margin rough, white (Fig. 4j, k ). Conidia germinated and grew deep into the medium. There was a clear boundary between the center and the most marginal part. The culture grew fruiting bodies after about four months on PDA medium at 26 °C (Fig. 4l, m ). The morphology of conidiophores and conidia in the semi-immersed or fully embedded medium was consistent with that found under natural conditions (Fig. 4n-t ).

Material examined.

China. Yunnan Province, Yuanjiang County, Yuanjiang National Nature Reserve (Xiaohedi), on dead leaves of an unidentified plant, 23°28'33"N, 102°21'1"E, elevation 423 m, June 2021, Hai-Xia Wu, Jin-Chen Li, and Xin-Hao Li (IFRD9468, holotype; IFRDCC3202, ex-type) .

Notes.

The phylogenetic tree shows that Ciliochorella chinensis has a close relationship with C. castaneae (HHUF 28800) (Fig. 1 ). A BLAST search conducted within GenBank, the match for LSU showed a 98.72% similarity to C. castaneae (HHUF 28800, this species only has LSU) across a query coverage of 95%. At present, the phylogenetic relationship in this genus is not comprehensive enough, so the classification depends greatly on their morphology. Morphologically, the conidiomata of C. chinensis have a papillary, which the conidiomata of C. phanericola lack. The conidiomata of both species display different sizes (Table 2 ).

Figures

Figure 1. Phylogenetic tree of maximum likelihood analyses showing the relationships of Ciliochorella species based on combined LSU, ITS and tub 2 data set analysis. Bootstrap values of maximum likelihood values greater than 50 % are shown on the left, while values for Bayesian posterior probabilities greater than 0.5 are shown on the right. Discostroma is the sexual morph of Seimatosporium. New species are shown in bold and red, followed by their strain number.

Figure 4. Ciliochorella chinensis (IFRD 9468, holotype; IFRDCC 3202, ex-type strain) a, b the specimen c surface of fruiting bodies d longitudinal section of the conidioma e peridium f-h mature conidia i mature conidia in cotton blue j, k colonies on PDA (k from below) l, m colonies on PDA (m from below) n fruiting bodies on PDA o fruiting bodies in PDA p peridium q-t mature conidia. Scale bars: 400 µm (c, n, o); 200 µm (d); 40 µm (p); 20 µm (e); 10 µm (f-i, q-t).