Dlhawksworthia flavoparmeliae H.L. Si, X.X. Zheng, 2021

Si, Hong-Li, Zheng, Xiao-Xiao, Li, Xin-Chao, Su, Yue-Min, Bose, Tanay & Chang, Run-Lei, 2021, Dlhawksworthia flavoparmeliae sp. nov., a new endolichenic fungus in Phaeosphaeriaceae, Phytotaxa 525 (1), pp. 51-58 : 54-56

Dlhawksworthia flavoparmeliae H.L. Si, X.X. Zheng , sp. nov.

Mycobank: MB840080, FIGURE 2

Etymology: —Name reflects the lichen, Flavoparmelia caperata , from which this species was isolated.

Holotype: — CHINA. Yunnan province: Jingdong county, Ailao Mountain , isolated from Flavoparmelia caperata, 2460m , 24°32’22.60” N, 101°01’62.91” E, 10 October 2020, H.L. Si. Ex-type culture: 8004a = CGMCC3.20307 , type specimen= HAMS 350286 .

Diagnoses: —Conidia unicellular, 0-1 septate, white or light grey in colour, catenulate, apical and lateral in position. Sexual morph absent.

Ecology and Distribution: —The only isolate of this fungus was recovered from Flavoparmelia caperata in the Yunnan province of China.

Description: —Sexual morph unknown. Asexual morph: Hyphae sessile, and irregular, smooth, thin-walled, branched, 0.8–3.1 µm in diam. Conidia stalk solitary, transparent to light brown in colour. Conidia round, unicellular, 0–1 septate, smooth wall, catenulate, measuring (1.66–) 2.42–4.04 (–5.34) × (2.47–) 3.63–5.73 (–6.94) µm (x̅ = 3.23 × 4.65 μm, n = 50) ( FIGURE 2 g –l ).

Culture characteristics and growth: —After 20 days, on all tested microbial media, the colonies were round, but with irregular margins. On PDA, the center of the colony was slightly raised with aerial hyphae encircling it, and the underside of the culture was dark reddish-brown ( FIGURE 2 a, b ). On MEA, the colony had radiating striations with fewer aerial hyphae. The underside of the culture was salmon ( FIGURE 2 c, d ). On OA, the centre of the colony was white with a brown margin ( FIGURE 2 e, f ). The underside of the culture had an orangish hue, while the edges were brown. The optimal temperature on PDA for growth was 20 °C, reaching 16.2 mm diam. in 7 days. The growth rate was substantially slower at 5 °C, 2.7mm diam. in 7 days. No growth was observed at temperatures above 30 °C.

Notes: —In the phylogenetic trees, Dl. flavoparmeliae was found in a clade that included all previously reported species in this genus ( FIGURE 1 , 100% ML, 100% MP, 1.00 BYPP). Still, Dl. flavoparmeliae can be morphologically distinguished from previously known species. Dlhawksworthia flavoparmeliae has smaller conidia size (1.66–5.34 × 2.47–6.94 µm) than Dl. lonicerae (14–17 × 7–8 µm), Dl. alliariae (14–17.5 × 6.4–8.4 µm), and Dl. clematidicola (17–23 × 10–13 µm). Conidia of Dl. flavoparmeliae are catenulate, which is lacking in other species. Furthermore, conidia of Dl. flavoparmeliae have 0–1 transverse septum, which is less than the other three known species ( Hyde et al. 2016, Wanasinghe et al. 2018).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Maximum likelihood tree constructed using the concatenated dataset (ITS, LSU, SSU, and TEF) depicting the phylogenetic placement of Dlhawksworthia flavoparmeliae sp. nov (in bold). The numbers on the branches are bootstrap percentages from ML (≥70) and MP (≥80) analyses, and BI posterior probabilities (≥0.95) are presented from left to right. A superscript T denotes ex-type isolate. Ophiobolopsis italica was used as the outgroup.

FIGURE 2. Culture and microscopic morphology of Dlhawksworthia flavoparmeliae sp. nov. Colony morphology on three solid microbial media, top and reverse. a, b. Potato dextrose agar. c, d. Malt extract agar. e, f. Oatmeal agar. g–l. Morphology of catenulate conidia. Scale bar: g–l = 10 μm.