Neopestalotiopsis sp.

Hsu, Sheng-Yu, Xu, Yuan-Cheng, Lin, Yu-Chen, Chuang, Wei-Yu, Lin, Shiou-Ruei, Stadler, Marc, Tangthirasunun, Narumon, Cheewangkoon, Ratchadawan, AL-Shwaiman, Hind A., Elgorban, Abdallah M. & Ariyawansa, Hiran A., 2024, Hidden diversity of Pestalotiopsis and Neopestalotiopsis (Amphisphaeriales, Sporocadaceae) species allied with the stromata of entomopathogenic fungi in Taiwan, MycoKeys 101, pp. 275-312 : 275

Neopestalotiopsis sp.

Fig. 10

Description.

See Suppl. material 1: table S1.

Materials examined.

Taiwan, Pingtung County, Chunri Township, Tahan Forest Road, on stroma of Beauveria sp. parasitic on an insect ( Lepidoptera ), 7 October 2018, Wei-Yu Chuang, living culture NTUPPMCC 18-161 (= CD02) .

Notes.

As mentioned earlier in this manuscript, even though the new strain NTUPPMCC 18-161 formed a distinct clade basal to N. asiatica , N. chrysea , N. macadamiae and N. umbrinospora in all ML, MP and BI phylogenetic trees, based on the concatenated DNA sequence data matrix, it did not consistently form clades in most of single-locus trees. For instance, in the ITS phylogeny (Suppl. material 2: fig. S8), NTUPPMCC 18-161 clustered with N. acrostichi (MFLUCC 17-1755) and the clade containing the ex-type strain (MFLUCC 15-0776) of N. musae , along with two representative strains (MM3-2z9A and MM3-2z9C). Conversely, in the phylogenetic tree, based on tub2 (Suppl. material 2: fig. S9), NTUPPMCC 18-161 formed a well-supported clade with the clade containing the ex-type strain of N. asiatica (MFLUCC 12-0286), N. chrysea (MFLUCC 12-0261), N. coffeae-arabicae (HGUP 4019), N. macadamiae (BRIP 63737c), N. sonneratae (MFLUCC 17-1744), N. thailandica (MFLUCC 17-1730) and N. umbrinospora (MFLUCC 12-0285). Meanwhile, it formed a separate sister clade to N. guajavae , N. pandanicola and N. psidii in the tef1-α phylogeny (Suppl. material 2: fig. S10) with poor branch and statistical support. When comparing the morphological features of strain NTUPPMCC 18-161 with its phylogenetically closelyrelated species, it becomes evident that our strain exhibits overlapping morphological features, particularly in the number of appendages and sizes of the conidial features (Suppl. material 1: table S10). Therefore, owing to the uncertainty in both phylogenetic placement and morphological data, we tentatively identify NTUPPMCC 18-161 as an unclassified Neopestalotiopsis strain. However, additional strains and information are required to clarify the correct placement of this strain.

Figures

Figure 10. Conidial morphology of Pestalotiopsis formosana (A, B NTUPPMCC 21 - 056), Pestalotiopsis trachycarpicola (C NTUPPMCC 18 - 160 D NTUPPMCC 21 - 055) and Neopestalotiopsis sp. (E NTUPPMCC 18 - 161), isolated from entomopathogenic fungi in this study. Scale bars: 20 μm (A-E).