Vaginatispora palmae S.N. Zhang, J.K. Liu & K.D. Hyde

Rathnayaka, Achala R., Chethana, K. W. Thilini, Tennakoon, Danushka S., Lumyong, Saisamorn & Hyde, Kevin D., 2021, Additions to the microfungi in Taiwan: introducing Pseudorobillarda camelliaesinensis sp. nov., (Pseudorobillardaceae) and new host records of pleosporalean taxa in mountainous habitats, Phytotaxa 516 (2), pp. 115-139 : 128

Vaginatispora palmae S.N. Zhang, J.K. Liu & K.D. Hyde , Fungal Diversity : 43 (2019)

Index Fungorum number: IF556316; Facesoffungi number: FoF05089; FIGURE 7 .

Saprobic on dead branch of Swietenia macrophylla King. Sexual morph: Ascomata 105–295 μm high, 110–155 μm diam. (x̄ = 200 × 133 μm; n = 10), black, solitary or gregarious, scattered, semi-immersed, erumpent, subglobose, coriaceous, ostiolate. Ostiole crest-like, central papillate. Peridium 20–35 μm wide, composed of two layers, outer layer consists of brown cells of textura angularis, inner layer thin-walled, consists of hyaline to pale brown cells of textura angularis. Hamathecium comprising 1–3 μm wide, hypha-like, septate, branched, tapering towards the apex, pseudoparaphyses. Asci 45–70 × 7–12 μm (x̄ = 53 × 10 μm; n = 20), 8-spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, cylindricclavate, with a short bulbous pedicel, rounded at the apex, with an ocular chamber. Ascospores 17–30 × 5–7 μm, (x̄ = 22 × 6 μm; n = 30), hyaline, 1–2 seriate, overlapping, 1-septate, slightly constricted at the central septum, above cell of the central septum swollen, guttulate, smooth-walled, surrounded by a narrow mucilaginous sheath and drawn out towards each end to form tapering appendages, 4–8 μm long. Asexual morph: Undetermined.

Culture characteristics: Ascospores germinated on PDA within 24 hours. Germ tubes produced at both ends of the ascospore. Colonies growing on PDA reaching 1 cm diam. after 1 week at 25 C, velvety, becoming grayish brown in upper side and dark brown in lower side.

Material examined: Taiwan, Fenghuang Mountain, on dead branch of Swietenia macrophylla (Meliaceae) , 30 October 2019, Achala Rathnayaka (MFLU 21-0009, new host record); living culture NCYUCC 19-0394.

Known Distribution: Thailand (Hyde et al. 2019), Taiwan (this study)

GenBank accession numbers: LSU: MW478594 , ITS : MW478598 , tef 1-α: MW478494

Note: Our collection is similar to the holotype of Vaginatispora palmae (MFLU 18–1586) collected from the immersed rachis of Nypa fruticans in Thailand (Hyde et al. 2019). The semi-immersed, erumpent, scattered ascomata, central papillate ostiole, cylindric-clavate asci with short bulbous pedicel and 1-septate ascospores with a mucilaginous sheath of NCYUCC 19-0394 well-resembles the holotype (MFLU 18-1586). However, ascomata (x̄ = 310 × 326 μm), asci (x̄ = 100.5 × 16 μm) and ascospores (x̄ = 35.3 × 7.5 μm) are larger in holotype (MFLU 18-1586) than our strain (NCYUCC 19-0394) (Hyde et al. 2019). The holotype was recorded from marine habitat while our strain collected from terrestrial habitat. Therefore, the environmental conditions are different and it may affect the morphological differences between holotype and our strain. Molecular analysis shows our strain (NCYUCC 19-0394) clustered with the ex-type strain of Vaginatispora palmae (MFLUCC 18-1526) with 100% ML/1.00 PP bootstrap support ( FIGURE 3 ). On the other hand, these two strains (NCYUCC 19-0394 and MFLUCC 18-1526) did not show any base pair differences. This is the first record of Vaginatispora palmae from Swietenia macrophylla and also a new geographical record for Taiwan. However, it is interesting to note that this is the third Vaginatispora record from terrestrial habitats.

Figures

FIGURE 3. Phylogenetic tree generated from ML analysis based on combined dataset of LSU, ITS and tef1-α. Related sequences were extracted from GenBank and Bao et al. (2019). The tree is rooted to Teichospora trabicola (CBS 140730) and T. rubriostiolata (CBS 140734). Bootstrap support values for ML ≥ 70% and Bayesian posterior probabilities (PP) ≥ 0.95 are noted at the nodes. Strain numbers are noted at the end of the species name. New isolate used in this study represented as blue bold and type strains are in bold.

FIGURE 7. Vaginatispora palmae (MFLU 21-0009, new host record) on dead branch of Swietenia macrophylla. a Appearance of ascomata on host substrate. b Close-up of ascoma. c, d Sections through an ascoma. e Section through peridium. f Pseudoparaphyses. g–k Immature to mature asci. l–p Ascospores. q Germinating ascospore. r Colony from above. s Colony from below. Scale bars: a =500 μm, b, d = 100 μm, c = 50 μm, g–k = 20 μm, e, f, l–q = 10 μm.