Neopestalotiopsis sp. 3

Wang, Yifeng, Tsui, Kin-Ming, Chen, Shimei & You, Chongjuan, 2024, Diversity, pathogenicity and two new species of pestalotioid fungi (Amphisphaeriales) associated with Chinese Yew in Guangxi, China, MycoKeys 102, pp. 201-224 : 201

Neopestalotiopsis sp. 3

Fig. 7

Conidiogenesis.

Conidiophores reduced to conidiogenous cells, hyaline, smooth. Conidiogenous cells were discrete, ampulliform, thin-walled, hyaline to light brown, smooth. Conidia fusiform to clavate, straight or slightly curved, olivaceous to brown, 4-septate, 15.5-19 × 6-7.5 μm, with apical and basal appendages. Basal cell obconic, hyaline, thin-walled, smooth, 2-4 µm; the three median cells 10.5-12 µm, dolioform, versicolor, pale brown to brown with septa darker than the rest of the cells, the second cell from base 2.5-4.5 µm; the third cell 3.5-4.5 µm; the fourth cell 3-4 µm; apical cell 1.5-3 µm, cylindrical, hyaline; 3-4 (mostly 3) tubular apical appendages, arising from the apex of the apical cell each at a different point, filiform, 16-23 µm; basal appendage present most of the time, single, tubular, unbranched, 1-2.5 µm (Fig. 7c-e ). Sexual morph not observed.

Culture characteristics.

Colonies on PDA reaching 90 mm diameter after seven days at 25 °C, white aerial mycelium on surface, flat or raised, radiating outwards with an undulate and radial edge (Fig. 7a ). Conidiomata acervular in culture on PDA, globose, 80-800 μm diameter, solitary or aggregated in clusters, exuding black conidial masses (Fig. 7b ).

Material examined.

China, Guangxi Province, from diseased shoots of Chinese yew, May 2020, Y. F. Wang (BJFC-S1957); living cultures CFCC59985, CFCC59986, CFCC59987, CFCC59988 .

Notes.

Neopestalotiopsis sp. 3 (CFCC59985 and CFCC59986) was phylogenetically close to N. rhapidis ( Yang et al. 2021) (Fig. 3 ) but differed in conidial size (15.5-19 × 6-7.5 µm in Neopestalotiopsis sp. 3 vs. 22-25.5 × 4-6 µm in N. rhapidis ). Furthermore, Neopestalotiopsis sp. 3 had longer apical appendages (16-23 µm vs. 11-16 µm) and shorter basal appendage (1-2.5 µm vs. 2-5.5 µm) than N. rhapidis . Compared with N. rhapidis (GUCC 21501, ex-type) and Neopestalotiopsis sp. 3, there were eleven nucleotide differences in the ITS region, four nucleotide differences in the tef-1α region and six nucleotide differences in the tub2 region. In the genus Neopestalotiopsis , the interspecific relationship remains unclear ( Li et al. 2021b), as some clades were not unanimously strongly supported, meaning the genus will be largely revised in the near future. Many taxa are likely to be synonymised in future publications. Therefore, CFCC59985 and CFCC59986 were not proposed as a new species.

Figures

Figure 3. A phylogenetic tree of Neopestalotiopsis generated from MP analysis, based on combined ITS, tub 2 and tef- 1 α sequence data. Maximum Parsimony and Maximum Likelihood bootstrap values ≥ 65 % are given at the nodes. The branches with Bayesian Inference posterior probabilities ≥ 0.90 are bold. Strains from this study are marked in blue. Ex-type strains are labelled with *.

Figure 7. Neopestalotiopsis sp. 3 (CFCC 59985) a culture on PDA b conidiomata form on PDA c-e conidia. Scale bars: 500 µm (b); 10 µm (c-e).