Neopestalotiopsis sp. 4

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. 4

Fig. 8

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, 15.5-18.5 × 6-8 μm, with apical and basal appendages. Basal cell obconic, hyaline, thin-walled, smooth, 2.5-4 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 3-3.5 µm; the third cell 3-4.5 µm; the fourth cell 3-5.5 µm; apical cell 1-2.5 µm, cylindrical, hyaline; 3-4 (mostly 3) tubular apical appendages, arising from the apex of the apical cell each at a different point, filiform, 9.5-15.5 µm; basal appendage present most of the time, single, tubular, unbranched, 1.5-4.5 µm (Fig. 8c-e ). Sexual morph not observed.

Culture characteristics.

Colonies on PDA reaching 90 mm diameter after seven days at 25 °C, radiating outwards with an undulate and radial edge, white aerial mycelium was flat on the centres of the colony, while raised sharply in the outer ring (Fig. 8a ). Conidiomata acervular in culture on PDA, globose, 100-900 μm diameter, solitary or aggregated in clusters, exuding black conidial masses (Fig. 8b ).

Material examined.

China, Gungxi Province , from diseased branches of Chinese yew, May 2020, Y. F. Wang (BJFC-S1958); living cultures CFCC59989, CFCC59990, CFCC59991 and CFCC59992 .

Notes.

Neopestalotiopsis sp. 4 (CFCC59989 and CFCC59990) was phylogenetically placed in a clade encompassing two Neopestalotiopsis sp. 2 isolates (CFCC54340 and ZX22B) from Yaan City, Sichuan Province ( Jiang et al. 2021) (Fig. 3 ). Morphologically, Neopestalotiopsis sp. 4 had shorter conidia and longer apical appendages (15.5-18.5 × 6-8 µm, 9.5-15.5 µm) than CFCC54340 and ZX22B (22-25.2 × 6.2-7.7 µm, 5-10 µm). In addition, Neopestalotiopsis sp. 4 had more tubular apical appendages (3-4, mostly 3) than Neopestalotiopsis sp. 2 (2, seldom 3). Compared with Neopestalotiopsis sp. 2 (ZX22B) and Neopestalotiopsis sp. 4, there were six nucleotide differences in the ITS region, five nucleotide differences in the tef-1α region and three nucleotide differences in the tub2 region. The taxonomy of the genera and species in this group remains unclear ( Li et al. 2021b), as some clades were not unanimously strongly supported, meaning the genus will be largely revised in near future. Many taxa are likely to be synonymised in future publications. Therefore, CFCC59989 and CFCC59990 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 8. Neopestalotiopsis sp. 4 (CFCC 59989) a culture on PDA b conidiomata form on PDA c-e conidia. Scale bars: 500 µm (b); 10 µm (c-e).