Sphaeropsis linhaiensis X.E. Xiao, Crous & H.Y. Li

Rathnayaka, Achala R., Chethana, K. W. Thilini, Phillips, Alan J. L. & Jones, E. B. Gareth, 2022, Two new species of Botryosphaeriaceae (Botryosphaeriales) and new host / geographical records, Phytotaxa 564 (1), pp. 8-38 : 22-25

Sphaeropsis linhaiensis X.E. Xiao, Crous & H.Y. Li , in Xiao et al., Persoonia 47: 131 (2021)

Index Fungorum number: IF 840686; Facesoffungi number: FoF 11773; Fig. 9

Synonym: Sphaeropsis guizhouensis Ya Ya Chen, Dissan. & Jian K. Liu , in Dissanayake et al., Journal of Fungi 7(no. 893): 31 (2021)

Saprobic on dead branch of Cinnamomum camphora . Sexual morph: Ascomata 265–350 μm high × 235–285 μm diam. (x̄ = 315 × 260 μm, n = 5), immersed to erumpent through host tissue, globose, solitary or scattered, appearing as brown to dark brown spots. Ostiole central, short papillate. Peridium 23–54 μm wide, 5–7 layers, brown to dark brown cells of textura angularis. Hamathecium comprising 3–7 μm wide, oblong to cylindrical, septate pseudoparaphyses. Asci 61–120 × 23–35 μm (x̄ = 80 × 30 μm, n = 10), 8-spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, cylindric-clavate to clavate, with a short pedicel, straight to slightly curved, apically rounded with a well-developed ocular chamber. Ascospores 28–37 × 14–20 μm (x̄ = 33 × 17 μm, n = 30), 1–2-seriate, overlapping in the ascus, hyaline to yellowish brown when immature, becoming brown to dark brown at maturity, ellipsoid to ovoid, aseptate, with granular appearance, widest at the center and tapering toward narrow ends, straight, with a hyaline apiculus at either end. Asexual morph: See Xiao et al. (2021).

Material examined: — CHINA. Guizhou: Guiyang, Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences (GZAAS), on a dead branch of Cinnamomum camphora (Lauraceae) , 20 May 2018, Milan Samarakoon (HKAS 10-2383, MFLU 22- 0100 new host record).

Known hosts and distribution:— Citrus unshiu in China ( Xiao et al. 2021), decaying woody hosts in China ( Dissanayake et al. 2021), Cinnamomum camphora in China (this study).

Notes:—In the multi-gene phylogeny (ITS, tef 1-α and β-tub), our strain (HKAS 10-2383) and ex-type strain of Sphaeropsis linhaiensis (CGMCC 3.20382) clustered with high 100% ML bootstrap and 1.00 PP support ( Fig. 2 ). Sphaeropsis linhaiensis was introduced from its asexual morph ( Xiao et al. 2021), while our strain is reported from sexual morphs. Therefore, we could not compare morphology between the holotype and our strain. When comparing the ITS region (ITS1-5.8S-ITS2), there is no base pair (0%) difference between S. guizhouensis (GZCC 19-0273) and S. linhaiensis (CGMCC 3.20382 and HKAS 10-2383). Therefore, we synonymize S. guizhouensis under S. linhaiensis based on our phylogenetic analyses. Both GZCC 19-0273 and HKAS 10-2383 isolates were collected from different hosts but in the same province. Considering the morpho-molecular evidence, we conclude that our collection is a new host record on Cinnamomum camphora in China.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Phylogram generated from ML analysis based on combined dataset of ITS, tef1-α and β-tub. The tree is rooted to Barriopsis stevensiana (CBS 174.26) and B. tectonae (MFLUCC 12-0381). Tree topology is similar to previous study conducted by Dissanayake et al. (2021). Bootstrap support values for ML ≥ 70% and Bayesian posterior probabilities (PP) ≥ 0.90 are noted at the nodes. Strain numbers are noted after the species names. Strains isolated in this study are presented in red and type strains are in bold.