Murispora aquatica D.F. Bao, Z.L. Luo, K.D. Hyde & H.Y. Su, 2019

Bao, Dan-Feng, Wanasinghe, Dhanushka N., Luo, Zong-Long, Mortimer, Peter E., Kumar, Vinit, Su, Hong-Yan & Hyde, Kevin D., 2019, Murispora aquatica sp. nov. and Murispora fagicola, a new record from freshwater habitat in China, Phytotaxa 416 (1), pp. 1-13 : 5-7

Murispora aquatica D.F. Bao, Z.L. Luo, K.D. Hyde & H.Y. Su , sp. nov. FIGURE. 2

Index Fungorum number: IF 556556; Facesoffungi number: FoF 06255

Etymology: —referring to the aquatic habitat of this fungus.

Holotype:— MFLU 19–0990

Saprobic on decaying submerged wood in freshwater habitats. Sexual morph: Ascomata 180–280 × 180–250 μm (x = 221.3 × 213.6 μm, n = 10), carbonaceous, solitary, globose to subglobose, papillate, dark brown to black, semiimmersed to immersed, scattered, substrate stained red to purple, fused to the host tissue, ostiolate. Ostiole 60–85 μm high (x = 73.2 μm, n = 5) round to papillate, short, outer cells brown to black, inner cells pale brown to hyaline. Peridium 18–33 μm wide comprising several layers grayish brown to black cells of textura angularis and globulosa. Hamathecium comprising 2–3 μm (n = 30) wide, branched, septate, hyaline, cellular pseudoparaphyses. Asci 123–150 × 14–17 μm (x = 137 × 15.7 μm, n = 20), 8-spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, cylindric-clavate, pedicellate, with a small ocular chamber. Ascospores 21–25 × 8–10 μm (x = 23 × 9 μm, n = 30), overlapping, 1–2-seriate, ellipsoidal to fusiform, narrow and rounded at both ends, muriform, 4–6 transverse septa, 1–2 longitudinal septa in all cells and rarely in end cells, slightly constricted at transverse septa, deeply constricted at middle transverse septa, hyaline when young, becoming dark brown at mature, smooth, surrounded by a distinct mucilaginous sheath. Asexual morph: Undetermined.

Material examined: — CHINA, Yunnan Province, Cangshan Mountain , saprobic on decaying wood submerged in a freshwater stream. May 2017, S.M. Tang, S-853 (MFLU 19–0990, holotype), ex-type culture, MFLUCC 17–2221 = ICMP 21832 .

FIGURE. Murispora aquatica (MFLU 9–0990, holotype). a–c. Ascomata on wood. d. Section of ascoma. e. Close up of ostiole. f. Peridium . g. Pseudoparaphyses. h–j. Asci. k–n. Ascospores. o. Ascospore stain in Indian Ink, with mucilaginous sheath. p. Germinating ascospore. q, r. Culture on PDA from surface and reverse. Scale bars: d = 100 μm, e = 50 μm, f– h = 25 μm, i–j = 35 μm, k–p = 10 μm.

Notes: —Morphologically, Murispora aquatica have similar shaped asci and ascospores as M. hawksworthii and both can stain the wood purple. However, M. aquatica differs from M. hawksworthii in having smaller asci (123– 150 × 14–17 μm vs. 150–200 × 20–28 μm) and shorter ascospores (21–25 × 8–10 μm vs. 25–35 × 8–12 μm). In our phylogenetic analyses, Murispora aquatica clustered with M. hawksworthii with strong support. Moreover, we compapared the basepairs of ITS and TEF1-α gene regions and there were 17 and 14 base pair differences respectively. These results strongly support our isolate to be a new species ( Jeewon & Hyde 2016). Therefore, we introduce our isolate as a new species based on both phylogeny and morphological characters.

Murispora fagicola Wanas., Camporesi, E.B.G. Jones & K.D. Hyde , in Wanasinghe et al. Cryptogamie, Mycologie, 36: 419–448 (2015) FIGURE. 3

Index Fungorum number: IF 551556

Saprobic on decaying submerged wood in freshwater. Sexual morph: Ascomata 180–350 × 160–315 μm (x = 263 × 252 μm, n = 10), solitary to gregarious, semi-immersed to immersed, globose to subglobose, dark brown to black, substrate stained purple, fused to the host tissue, ostiolate. Ostiole 65–130 μm high (x = 85.7 μm, n = 5), crestlike, central, papillate, dark brown to black, and occasionally with purple, opening to exterior through bark surface. Peridium 15–30 μm wide, comprising 3–4 layers of dark brown cells textura angularis. Hamathecium comprising 1.5–2 μm wide, filiform, branched, septate, cellular pseudoparaphyses. Asci 166–247 × 16–22 μm (x = 184 × 16.8 μm, n = 30), bitunicate, fissitunicate, cylindric-clavate, short pedicellate, with a minute ocular chamber. Ascospores 27–31 × 11–13 μm (x = 30.3 × 11.4 μm, n = 30), overlapping, 1–2-seriate, oval to ellipsoidal, with narrow ends, muriform, with 1–2 longitudinal septa in all cells except end cells, constricted at septa, hyaline when young, becoming dark brown at maturity, surrounded by a thin, distinct mucilaginous sheath. Asexual morph: Undetermined.

Material examined: — CHINA, Tibet, saprobic on decaying wood submerged in a freshwater river, May 2017, S.M. Tang, S-1290 (MFLU 19–0991), living culture, MFLUCC 19–0256 .

Notes: — Murispora fagicola was introduced by Wanasinghe et al. (2015), which was collected from terrestrial habitats in Italy. In this study, our specimen was collected from freshwater habitat in Tibet, China. Morphologically, the new isolate of Murispora fagicola (MFLUCC 19–0256) is similar to the holotype of M. fagicola (MFLUCC 13–0600). However, the size of asci between these two strains MFLUCC 19–0256 and MFLUCC 13–0600 are different. Asci of MFLUCC 19–0256 are larger than MFLUCC 13–0600. We suspect it is due to the different habitats. In the phylogenetic analyses, the new isolate M. fagicola (MFLUCC 19–0256) clustered with M. fagicola (MFLUCC 13–0600) with high bootstrap support (100% ML and 1.00 BYPP) and the ITS regions of these two M. fagicola strains (MFLUCC 13–0600 and MFLUCC 19–0256) differ by only five base pairs (1.06%). Therefore, we identified our isolate as a new record for China based on both morphological characters and phylogenetic results.